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CLASSROOM  PROBLEMS  IN  THE 
EDUCATION  OF  GIFTED  CHILDREN 


BY 


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THEODORE  SPAFFORD  HENRY 

A.  B.  Hedding  College,  1903 
A.  M.  University  of  Illinois,  1916 


THESIS 
Submitted  in  Partial  Fulfillment  of  the  Requirements  for  the 

Degree  of 

DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 

IN  EDUCATION 

IN 


THE   GRADUATE   SOfJOOL  *^  o  f  ;j   y  ., 

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OF   THE  —- 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
1917 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/fclassroomproblemOOhenrrich 


CLASSROOM  PROBLEMS  IN  THE 
EDUCATION  OF  GIFTED  CHILDREN 


BY 


THEODORE  SPAFFORD  HENRY 

A.  B.  Hedding  College,  1903 
A.  M.  University  of  Illinois,  1916 


THESIS 
Submitted  in  Partial  Fulfillment  of  the  Requirements  for  the 

Degree  of 

DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 

IN  EDUCATION 

IN         ,      ■•'  -^  ''  '    '>'  ' 

""  ^\      *         ''''■.',   '*-.'      y    ^      t 

t  Til  1>  1»'-»-»        ■, 

THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL 
OF    THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
1917 


•  •  •• 

•  •  •  • 

•  ••  • 

•  ••  • 


»      »   • 
•  «    *    • 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

Pages 

Introduction 7 

Chap. 

I    Flexible  Promotion  Schemes  as  Related  to  the 

School  Progress  of  Gifted  Children — 11 

II    Special  Rooms  for  Gifted  Pupils 28 

III  The  Experimental  Room  at  Urbana 42 

IV  Results  of  the  Educational  Tests 55 

V    Results  of  a  Practice-Test  in  Multiplication 76 

VI    Results  of  the  Mental  Tests 89 

VII    Methods  of  Teaching  as  Adapted  to  the  Instruc- 
tion OF  Gifted  Children 96 

VIII    General  Summary  and  Recommendations 112 

IX    Bibliography 120 

Vita 126 


418741 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

If  any  apology  is  needed  for  bringing  to  the  attention  of  members 

of  the  Society  the  work  of  one  of  my  former  associates,  it  will  be 

found  in  the  significance  of  the  work  itself.     To  anyone  who  notes 

the   evolution   of   educational   thought   and  practice,   it   must  be 

/Evident   thatj<.6ne   of   the   most  clearly  evident  tendencies  of  the 

(present  day  is  the  "psychologizing"  of  instruction — the  fitting  of 

/  educational  agencies   to   the   needs  of    the  individual  pupil.     For 

^  several  years  we  have  recognized  the  needs  of  pupils  of  subnormal 

mentality.     We  are  now  perceiving  more   clearly  the   even  more 

I  crying  needs  of  pupils  of  supernormal  mentality.      This   Yearbook 

ought  to  render  these  needs  more  evident  and  at  the  same   time 

point  out  how  in  some  measure  they  may  be  met. 

G.  M.  W. 


CLASSROOM  PROBLEMS   IN  THE   EDUCATION 
OF  GIFTED  CHILDREN* 

INTRODUCTION 

One  of  the  most  significant  of  modern  tendencies  in  educational 
administration  is  revealed  in  the  widespread  attempts  which  are 
being  made  to  adjust  the  subject  matter  and  methods  of  the  school 
to  the  varying  needs  and  capabilities  of  the  children  whom  it  is  the 
purpose  of  the  school  to  serve.  Instead  of  holding  to  a  rigid  scheme 
of  gradation,  adjusted  to  the  theoretical  ''average  child,"  to  which 
all  children  must  be  made  to  conform,  those  who  are  in  charge  of 
pubUc-school  systems  are  coming  to  see  the  advisabiUty  of  making 
a  more  flexible  arrangement  and  a  more  careful  adjustment  to  the 
varying  aptitudes  and  capacities  of  the  members  of  the  school  popu- 
lation. In  other  words,  there  is  going  on  something  which  has  been 
termed  the  "psychologizing"  of  school  organization,  as  well  as  of 
school  instruction. 

Naturally  enough,  in  the  movement  better  to  adjust  the  school 
to  the  individual  child,  as  well  as  to  the  needs  of  society,  deficient, 
defective,  and  subnormal  children  first  came  in  for  attention.  They 
appealed  to  our  sympathy  and  philanthropy.  They  were  con- 
sidered a  detriment  to  the  work  of  the  normal  pupils.  It  was  evident 
that  at  best  they  would  be  more  or  less  of  a  burden  upon  society 
after  their  schooldays,  as  well  as  in  their  childhood,  and  that,  there- 
fore, whatever  the  school  might  do  toward  better  fitting  thdm  to 
make  their  own  way  would  be  a  distinct  service  to  society,  as  well 

*  This  investigation  was  suggested  and  directed  by  Dr.  Guy  M.  WhippJle,  at  that 
time  Professor  of  Education  in  the  University  of  Illinois,  now  of  the  University  of 
Michigan.  Material  assistance  in  its  pursuit  was  received  from  Miss  Genevieve  Coy, 
at  present  connected  with  the  Department  of  Psychology,  Ohio  State  University,  and 
Dr.  H.  T.  Manuel,  Professor  of  Psychology  in  the  Gunnison,  Colorado,  State  Normal 
School.  Acknowledgements  are  also  due  the  large  number  of  public  school  officials 
and  teachers  who  responded  to  requests  for  information. 

7 


8  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 

as  a  benevolence  to  the  afflicted.  As  a  result  of  the  interest  aroused 
in  the  education  of  such  children,  there  has  developed  a  distinctive 
pedagogy  of  subnormal  children,  which  has  assumed  quite  respecta- 
ble proportions. 

While  no  one  could  object  to  what  has  been  done  to  make  life  less 
burdensome  to  those  who  have  entered  into  it  under  handicaps  so 
heavy,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  if  differentiation  of  instruction  is 
to  be  confined  to  those  at  the  lower  end  of  the  scale  of  mental  ability, 
such  differentiation  is  at  best  one-sided.  A  division  of  classes  which 
is  made  merely  by  separating  from  the  average  those  who  fall  below 
it  is  a  step  in  the  right  direction,  but  a  step  that  needs  another  to 
complement  it.  In  order  to  bring  about  a  proper  balance,  provision 
should  also  be  made  for  those  more  fortunate  individuals,  who,  by 
reason  of  better  and  larger  gifts,  stand  at  the  upper  end  of  the  scale. 
This  one-sidedness  has  only  lately  begun  to  receive  the  attention  of 
educators.  Interest  in  special  provision  for  children  of  superior 
mental  powers  was  first  exhibited  by  practical  schoolmen.  Harris  in 
Saint  Louis,  Van  Sickle  in  Baltimore,  Kendall  in  Indianapolis,  as 
well  as  others,  became  interested  in  the  subject,  and  not  only  put 
into  operation  within  their  own  school  systems,  schemes  for  adapting 
the  school  program  to  the  peculiar  and  distinctive  needs  of  the  bright 
child,  but  did  much  in  their  publications  and  addresses  to  arouse  a 
similar  interest  in  other  quarters.  Petzoldt,^  in  Germany,  has 
carried  on  an  active  campaign  for  the  establishment  of  special  schools 
for  gifted  children,  and  has  not  been  daunted  by  the  rather  fierce 
attacks  of  his  critics;  while  Sickinger,  at  Mannheim,  included  in  his 
well-known  system  provision  for  such  pupils  as  were  fitted  to  do 
extra  work. 

The  efforts  of  these  practical  school  administrators  have  been 
given  impetus  by  those  psychologists  who  have  been  contributing 
to  the  psychology  of  individual  differences.  Stern  has  not  only 
given  us  his  important  work  on  individual  psycholog}^,^  but  has  made 
a  definite  plea  for  special  classes  for  such  pupils  as  are  endowed  with 

1  Petzoldt,  J.  Sonderschulen  fur  hervorragend  Befahigte.  Neue  Jahrbilcher  filr 
die  Pddagogik,  14:  1905,  425-456.  Also  Die  Einwande  gegen  Sonderschulen.  Neue 
Jahrbiicher  fur  PUdagogik,  28:1911,  1-24. 

"  Stem,  W.    Die  diferentielle  Psychologie, 


INTRODUCTION  9 

superior  general  intelligence.^  In  America,  Goddard,  Terman,*  and 
Whipple^  have  done  much  to  further  the  interest  in  special  educational 
facilities  for  bright  children,  especially  the  last-named,  to  whom  we 
owe  the  term  ''gifted"  as  the  standard  designation  of  children  of 
supernormal  ability.  All  these  efforts  have  had  their  effect,  and  it 
is  safe  to  say  that  at  the  present  time  there  is  a  wide  and  growing 
interest  in  the  education  of  the  supernormal  child  and  the  best 
means  by  which  it  may  be  brought  about.  During  the  past  ten  years 
these  topics  have  received  increased  attention  in  the  meetings  of  the 
National  Education  Association,  the  reports  of  the  United  States 
Commissioner  of  Education,  the  bulletins  of  the  Bureau  of  Educa- 
tion, and  in  the  various  school  journals.  Many  cities  and  towns 
are  already  making  special  provision  for  gifted  pupils,  either  by 
schemes  of  flexible  grading,  or  by  special  rooms  or  classes  for  them, 
and  others  are  definitely  planning  to  make  such  provision  as  soon  as 
it  may  be  possible  or  feasible. 

The  arguments  in  favor   of  special  educational  provision  for 
bright  children  are  both  social  and  individualistic.     From  the  former 
standpoint,  society  cannot  afford  the  loss  entailed  upon  it  by  the  _^ 
incomplete  development  of  its  most  able  and  competent  members. 
On  the  individualistic  side,  every  child,  whether  subnormal,  normal, 
or  supernormal,  has  a  right  to  that  kind  of  education  which  is  best 
suited  to  his  powers  and  his  needs.     There  is  a  moral  question  in- 
volved, also.     It  is  just  as  important  for  the  bright  child  to  acquire    ^ 
correct  habits  of  work  as  it  is  for  the  dull  or  average  child  to  do  so, 
whereas  in  the  ordinary  class  the  brightest  children  are  likely  to 
have  from  a  fourth  to  a  half  of  their  time  in  which  to  loaf,  and  never  . 
or  rarely  have  the  opportunity  of  knowing  what  it  means  to  work 
up  to  the  Umit  of  their  powers.     The  consequent  habits  of  indolence, 
carelessness,  and  inattention,  which  are  so  likely  to  be  formed  under 
such  conditions,  might  be  avoided  by  the  provision,  for  such  children,^ 
of  special  courses  of  such  a  nature  as  to  fit  their  peculiar  charac-t 
teristics. 

'Stem,  W.  The  supernormal  child.  Journal  of  Educational  Psychology j  2: 
March,  April,  1911, 143-148, 181-190. 

*  Terman,  L.  M.  The  Intelligence  of  School  Children.  Boston,  1919.  Especially 
Chs.  10  and  11. 

'  Whipple,  G.  M.,  Supernormal  children,  in  Monroe's  Cyclopedia  of  Education, 
Also  Classes  for  Gifted  Children^  Bloomington,  Dl.,  1918. 


10  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 

Although  the  arguments  for  special  provision  for  gifted  children 
are  coming  more  and  more  to  be  recognized  as  valid,  and  notwith- 
standing the  general  and  growing  interest  in  the  education  of  the 
superior  child,  we  have  in  the  pedagogy  of  very  bright  children  a 
field  as  yet  practically  untouched.  From  the  Report  of  the  United 
States  Commissioner  of  Education  for  1915  I  quote  the  following 
paragraph : 

"The  public  is  becoming  interested  in  the  supernormal  child;  the 
press  is  eager  for  information  regarding  this  type  of  child;  and  the 
school  is  rapidly  becoming  aware  that  it  has  neglected  this  problem. 
Rapid  advancement  classes  are  held  for  these  children  in  certain 
cities,  in  others  extra  work  is  given  them  in  the  regular  classes.  But 
as  yet  few  cities  have  had  the  courage  to  develop  a  program  exactly 
fitted  to  their  needs,  nor  have  the  psychological  clinics  said  much 
regarding  tests  to  discover  the  supernormal."®        ^ 

It  is  within  this  neglected  field  of  the  pedagogy  of  gifted  children 
that  this  study  aims  to  make  its  contribution.  The  study  is  based 
upon  the  observation  of  the  experimental  room  which  is  described 
at  a  later  place  in  the  text.  This  room  was  under  the  author's  con- 
stant oversight,  and  he  had  the  privilege  of  doing  some  teaching  in  it. 
Other  information  was  obtained  through  the  inspection  of  two  dif- 
ferent types  of  special  rooms  for  bright  children,  which  form  a  part 
of  the  school  system  of  Louisville,  Kentucky.  An  investigation  has 
also  been  made  of  a  large  number  of  school  reports  of  various  cities, 
and  an  extensive  correspondence  has  been  carried  on  with  city  super- 
intendents whose  school  systems  include  definite  and  special  pro- 
vision for  bright  children,  as  well  as  with  teachers  in  charge  of  special 
groups  or  classes  of  such  children.  Other  rooms  of  the  same  grade 
in  the  school  in  which  the  experimental  room  was  located  afforded  a 
control  group  for  the  purpose  of  various  educational  and  psycho- 
logical tests  which  were  given  to  both  groups  by  a  trained  psycho- 
logist, and  upon  the  results  of  which  many  of  the  conclusions  of  the 
study  are  based.  The  author  found  that  the  experience  he  had 
obtained  in  twelve  years  of  teaching  and  supervision  in  public-school 
systems  was  of  material  assistance  in  his  observation  of  the  experi- 
mental room  and  in  fact  led  him  to  generaUzations  that  might  not 
have  been  possible  without  this  background  of  experience  with 
ordinary  elementary-school  classes. 

«  Report  of  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education^  1915,  Vol.  I,  p.  40. 


CHAPTER  I 

FLEXIBLE  PROMOTION  SCHEMES  AS  RELATED  TO  THE 
SCHOOL  PROGRESS  OF  GIFTED  CHILDREN 

Many  efforts  have  been  made  in  various  localities  toward  the 
solution  of  the  problem  of  making  school  promotion  fit  different 
intellectual  grades — ungraded  classes,  more  rapid  promotion  through 
special  coaching  and  through  systems  of  flexible  grading,  methods  of 
dividing  grades  into  groups  according  to  intellectual  ability  and 
progressing  at  different  rates,  etc.  The  different  provisions  for 
flexible  grading  which  have  been,  or  are  now,  in  vogue  in  different 
places  have  been  so  well  described  by  others  as  to  render  unnecessary 
any  lengthy  or  detailed  discussion  of  them  at  this  time.^  At  the 
■  risk  of  unnecessary  repetition,  however,  it  has  been  thought  best  to 
give  a  brief  treatment  of  them,  both  because  they  are  related  to  the 
general  question  of  the  school  progress  of  gifted  children,  and  also 
because,  historically  speaking,  out  of  these  the  special  room  or  class 
for  gifted  pupils  has  evolved. 

To  Dr.  W.  T.  Harris,  Superintendent  of  the  Saint  Louis  schools 
from  1867  to  1880,  and  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education 
from  1889  to  1906,  is  due  the  credit  for  the  first  comprehensive  plan 
to  introduce  flexibility  into  the  classification  of  the  graded  school. 
The  features  and  merits  of  his  plan  are  discussed  in  his  reports  for 
1868-69  and  1871-72-73.  He  described  his  scheme  before  the 
members  of  the  National  Education  Association  in  1872,  and  in 
1874  he  included  in  his  report  a  still  more  detailed  account  of  the 
plan.2  It  is  based  upon  a  short-interval  system  of  promotion  by 
which  pupils,  at  least  in  the  lower  grades,  are  promoted  every  five 

*  Holmes,  W.  H.,  School  Organization  and  the  Individual  Child. 

McDonald,  R.  A.  F,,  Adjustment  of  School  Organization  to  Various  Population 
Groups.    Teachers  College,  Columbia  University,  Contributions  to  Education,  No.  75. 

Van  Sickle,  J.  H.,  Witmer,  L.,  and  Ayres,  L.  P.,  Provision  for  Exceptional  Children 
in  Public  Schools.    U^iited  States  Bureau  of  Edtication,  Bulletin  1911,  No.  14. 

2  In  addition  to  the  reports  cited  above,  see  also,  by  the  same  author,  Class  Inter- 
vals m  the  Graded  Schools,  Proc.  Nat.  Educ.  Assoc,  1900,  pp.  323-340. 

11 


12  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 

weeks,  with  an  arrangement  which  makes  it  possible  for  the  few  best 
pupils  in  each  section  or  class  to  be  united  with  the  class  or  section 
next  above  them.  This  plan  is  of  special  interest  to  us  because  it  is 
primarily  a  plan  for  hurrying  along  bright  pupils  for  the  purpose  of 
keeping  the  upper  grades  from  being  depleted  by  withdrawals,  and 
one  of  the  features  which  Dr.  Harris  urged  in  its  favor  was  that  it 
tends  to  hold  bright  pupils  up  to  the  work  of  which  they  are  capable 
and  keeps  them  from  acquiring  habits  of  carelessness  and  listlessness. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  National  Education  Association  in  1898, 
considerable  time  was  devoted  to  a  discussion  of  the  topics  of  grading 
and  promotion,  with  reference  to  the  needs  of  the  individual  pupil.^ 
Just  at  this  time,  there  were  a  few  schoolmen  who  were  very  enthu- 
siastic over  the  matter,  and  were  doing  all  in  their  power  to  get  others 
to  share  their  enthusiasm.  It  was  not  until  about  the  year  1900, 
however,  that  they  were  able  to  make  much  impression  upon  the 
general  indifference  that  had  prevailed.  It  may  be  said,  then, 
that  the  year  1900  marked  a  very  radical  change  in  the  general 
attitude  toward  flexibility  within  the  school  organization,  so  that 
one  of  the  distinctive  characteristics  of  the  period  since  then  has 
been  an  enthusiastic  endeavor  to  provide  for  individual  differences 
among  pupils,  even  to  the  extent  of  organizing  special  classes  or 
special  schools  for  students  whose  interests  are  of  different  kinds  and 
who  are  of  different  degrees  of  ability. 

This  change  of  attitude  was  due  largely  to  the  activities  of  two 
men  (besides  Dr.  Harris) — Superintendent  Preston  W.  Search,  of 
Pueblo,  Colorado,  and  Superintendent  W.  J.  Shearer,  of  Elizabeth, 
New  Jersey.  The  latter,  about  1886,  had  devised  what  is  known 
as  the  "Elizabeth  Plan,"  and  in  1898  pubHshed  a  book  devoted  to 
its  merits."*  This  plan  does  not  differ  radically  from  the  Saint  Louis 
plan;  its  dominant  feature  consists  in  grouping  together  in  separate 
rooms  those  pupils  who  are  of  about  equal  ability  and  attainments. 
Each  of  the  eight  grades,  accordingly,  is  divided  into  three  or  four 
sections.  Each  section  is  allowed  to  do  as  much  work  as  it  can  and 
to  advance  as  rapidly  as  it  is  able,  while  as  soon  as  a  pupil  shows 
that  he  is  capable  of  handling  the  work  of  the  next  section,  he  is 

« Proc.  Nat.  Educ.  Assoc,  1898.    Papers  on  Grading  and  Promotion. 
*  Shearer,  W.  J.,  The  Grading  of  Schools,  1898. 


FLEXIBLE  PROMOTION  SCHEMES  13 

promoted  without  any  formal  examination.  It  will  be  seen  at  once 
that,  Uke  the  Saint  Louis  plan,  this  plan  is  essentially  a  device  for 
accelerating  the  progress  of  the  more  competent  pupils. 

The  plan  devised  by  Superintendent  Search  is  known  as  the 
"Pueblo  Plan,"  and  is  different  from  the  two  which  have  just  been 
mentioned,  in  that  class  instruction  is  done  away  with,  and  the  indivi- 
dual determines  his  own  rate  of  progress.  In  1901  Search  published 
his  book:  An  Ideal  School,  in  which  considerable  space  is  devoted  to 
a  discussion  of  the  different  degrees  of  ability  to  be  found  within  the 
membership  of  an  ordinary  high-school  class.  He  describes  an  experi- 
ment conducted  with  a  Caesar  class  in  the  Central  High  School,  of 
Pueblo,  in  which  24  pupils  worked  one  and  one-half  hours  a  day  for 
100  days  under  individual  instruction,  without  any  home  work,  and 
says  that  the  study  "shows  conclusively  that  even  in  a  'well-graded 
class'  there  are  some  pupils  who  can  do  three  times  as  much  work  as 
others."  He  also  refers  to  a  similar  experiment  carried  on  at  Holy- 
oke,  Massachusetts,  where  24  members  of  a  class  in  arithmetic  were 
permitted  to  travel  each  at  his  own  rate  for  a  given  period  of  time, 
and  in  which  similar  results  were  obtained,  without  any  sacrifice  of 
quality  for  the  sake  of  quantity  on  the  part  of  the  more  rapidly 
moving  members  of  the  class.^  While  Search  argues  that  his  plan 
gives  rapid  workers  "full,  free  opportunity  to  live  up  to  the  best  that 
is  within  them,"  the  chief  aim  in  practice  seems  to  have  been  to  take 
care  of  the  backward  pupils,  rather  than  of  those  who  might  be  able 
to  advance  more  rapidly  than  usual. 

One  of  the  best  known  of  the  schemes  for  flexible  grading  is  the 
"Double-Track  Plan,"  or  "Cambridge  Plan,"  as  developed  in  the 
city  of  that  name  in  Massachusetts.  This  plan  came  into  existence 
about  1891,  and  was  a  modification  of  the  last  six  years  of  a  nine-year 
course.  Special,  or  "coach"  teachers  were  employed  to  aid  those 
pupils  who  seemed  unable  to  do  the  work  in  the  regular  time,  as 
well  as  to  aid  in  the  progress  of  those  who  appeared  capable  of  doing 
the  work  in  less  than  the  allotted  six  years.  On  one  'track'  the  course 
was  divided  into  six  sections,  on  the  other  into  four;  each  section 
covered  a  year's  work.  Those  pupils  who  took  this  course  in  six 
years  were  classified  in  the  regular  grades,  while  those  who  took  it 
in  four  years  were  classified  in  four  grades — A,  B,  C,  and  D.     Pupils 

6  Search,  P.  W.    An  Ideal  School,  pp.  2S-32. 


14  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  U 

promoted  to  the  grammar  schools  began  the  first  year's  work  to- 
gether, but  after  two  or  three  months  they  were  divided  into  two 
sections,  upon  the  basis  of  their  ability.  The  upper  section,  com- 
posed of  the  brighter  pupils,  completed  one-fourth  of  the  course  of 
study  in  the  year,  while  the  other  division  completed  only  one-sixth. 
It  was  also  possible  for  the  pupil  to  change  from  the  fast  to  the  slow 
'track,'  or  mce  versa,  at  the  middle  of  the  course,  and  thus  to  finish 
the  course  in  five  years. 

In  the  form  in  which  it  has  just  been  described,  this  plan  was  in 
operation  in  Cambridge  about  17  years.  During  this  time  10,203 
pupils  graduated  from  the  grammar  schools,  of  whom  7  per  cent  com- 
pleted the  course  in  four  years,  28  per  cent  in  five  years,  50  per  cent 
in  six  years,  and  15  per  cent  in  seven  or  more  years.  In  1910,  a 
modification  of  this  plan  was  introduced.  The  basal  course  of  the 
new  Cambridge  plan  is  eight  years  in  length,  and  each  year,  except 
the  last,  is  divided  into  three  grades.  The  last  year  comprises  only 
two  grades,  which  makes  a  total  of  twenty-three  grades  for  the  eight 
years.  Each  of  these  grades  covers  the  work  of  about  three  months, 
except  in  the  eighth  year,  where  the  grade  is  five  months  in  length. 
Supplementary  to  the  regular  course,  there  is  a  parallel  course  which 
covers  the  same  subject  matter  in  six  years.  In  this  course  there 
are  17  grades,  so  that  the  work  assigned  to  each  grade  is  about  a 
third  more  than  to  the  corresponding  grade  of  the  regular  course. 
If  a  pupil  fails  to  carry  the  work  of  his  grade,  he  is  asked  to  repeat 
only  three  months'  work.  If  he  is  in  the  shorter  course  and  fails  to 
keep  up,  he  may  transfer  to  the  regular  course,  with  a  loss  of  not 
more  than  two  months'  time;  or  if  he  is  in  the  basal  course  and  able 
to  do  more  work  than  is  there  required  of  him,  he  may  be  transferred 
to  the  supplementary  course,  with  not  to  exceed  two  months'  repeti- 
tion of  work  at  the  transfer.  So  many  are  the  opportunities  for 
passing  from  one  course  to  the  other,  that  the  rate  of  progress  may 
be  varied  to  meet  any  need.^ 

Before  the  old  Cambridge  plan  had  given  way  to  the  plan  as  it 
now  exists,  it  was  adopted,  with  some  extensions,  by  two  small 
cities  of  Iowa — Odebolt  and  Le  Mars,  and  as  thus  modified  it  goes 
under  the  name  of  one  or  the  other  of  these  towns.  The  "Le  Mars 
Plan,"  or  "Odebolt  Plan,"  comprises  nine  grades,  with  two  courses, 

•Cambridge,  Mass.,  School  Committee:  Amiual  Reports,  1908,  1910. 


FLEXIBL  E  PROMOTION  SCHEMES  15 

one  of  six  and  the  other  of  nine  years.  These  courses  are  parallel 
and  so  arranged  as  to  permit  a  transfer  of  pupils  from  the  one  to  the 
other  at  several  different  points.  The  six-year  course  is  divided  into 
three  two-year  cycles,  while  the  nine-year  course  is  made  up  of  three 
three-year  cycles.  The  end  of  a  cycle  affords  a  point  of  transfer,  so 
that  a  student  may  complete  the  course  in  six,  seven,  eight,  or  nine 
years,  according  to  his  ability,  and  the  superior  pupil  is  never  required 
to  'mark  time.'^ 

In  1897,  Portland,  Oregon,  adopted  a  modified  form  of  the  Cam- 
bridge plan,  in  which  the  entire  course  of  study  is  divided  into  54 
parts,  making  up  18  terms  of  five  months  each.  Regular  promotions 
take  place  at  the  end  of  each  term,  and  are  by  subjects,  instead  of  by 
averages  of  class  marks.  The  work  of  a  year  and  a  half  comprises 
a  cycle,  and  at  the  beginning  of  each  such  cycle  those  pupils  who  have 
come  to  the  same  point  in  the  course  of  study  are  separated  into  two 
divisions,  a  fast  division  which  is  to  advance  at  the  rate  of  four  parts 
of  the  course  of  study  each  term,  and  a  slow  division  which  covers 
only  three  parts  in  the  same  time.  Reclassifications  may  take  place 
at  the  end  of  any  cycle.  Those  pupils  who  remain  constantly  in  the 
first  division  will  be  able  to  complete  the  course  in  seven  years,  an 
arrangement  which,  again,  is  advantageous  for  the  capable  pupil. ^ 

About  1895,  while  J.  H.  Van  Sickle  was  superintendent  of  the 
North  Side  Schools  of  Denver,  Colorado,  he  put  into  operation  in  his 
schools  a  plan  which  was  designed  to  provide  opportunity  for  the 
brighter  children  of  each  class  to  develop  their  individuality  by  doing 
work  which  was  more  extended  and  more  intensive  than  that  done 
by  the  slower  members.  The  special  feature  of  this  plan  is  the  pro- 
vision of  extra  work  for  the  capable  children,  to  be  done  by  them 
during  free  periods,  while  the  other  children  are  reciting.  Home 
work  is  reduced  to  a  minimum,  and  every  encouragement  is  given 
to  the  selected  pupils  to  depend  more  and  more  upon  their  own 
initiative  and  to  push  ahead  as  fast  as  they  can.  The  plan  is  not, 
however,  primarily  a  device  for  gaining  time,  as  the  feature  of  saving 
time  in  the  course  receives  far  less  emphasis  than  is  placed  upon  the 
opportunity  for  self-development  by  following  out  some  special  topic 

'  Holmes,  W.  H.,  School  Organization  and  the  Individital  Child,  pp.  39-43. 
8  Holmes,  W.  H.,  Op.  cit.,  pp.  43-45. 


16  'nineteenth  yearbook— part  II 

of  personal  interest,  after  the  minimum  of  each  study  for  which  all 
pupils  are  held  responsible  has  been  mastered.^ 

The  "Santa  Barbara  Concentric  Plan,"  as  worked  out  in  the 
schools  of  Santa  Barbara,  California,  divides  each  grade  into  A,  B, 
and  C  sections.  Each  section  must  master  the  same  fundamental 
principles  for  each  of  the  subjects,  but  the  A  pupils  do  more  extensive 
work  than  the  B  pupils,  and  the  B  more  than  the  C.  Transfers  may 
take  place  from  section  to  section  within  the  grade  at  any  time,  and 
just  as  soon  as  the  A  pupils  of  any  grade  are  ready  for  the  work  of 
the  next  grade  they  are  promoted  to  the  C  section  of  that  grade.  In 
this  plan,  too,  emphasis  is  put  upon  the  enrichment  of  the  course  of 
study  for  the  more  capable  children,  rather  than  upon  their  more 
rapid  advancement  in  the  course,  although  there  is  opportunity  for 
the  latter  to  take  place. ^^ 

In  Chicago,  New  York,  and  other  cities  there  has  been  in  use  for 
some  twenty  years  a  plan  known  as  the  ''Group  System,"  or  **Large- 
School  Plan."  Because  of  the  large  number  of  pupils  in  city  schools, 
it  is  possible  to  have  in  each  grade  three  or  more  classes  and  to 
group  the  pupils  according  to  ability,  with  the  bright  students  in  one 
class,  the  slow  in  another,  and  the  medium  in  still  others.  The  group 
system  has  been  worked  out  in  two  ways,  which  are  designated  as 
(1)  the  "Constant- Group  System,"  and  (2)  the  "Shifting-Group 
System."  In  the  operation  of  the  constant-group  method,  the 
membership  of  the  class  remains  the  same  for  a  definite  period,  and 
promotions  are  made  only  at  regular  and  stated  intervals.  Divisions 
must  be  provided  in  nearly  all  subjects  of  the  course,  and  students  in 
the  most  advanced  sections  may  pass  to  a  higher  grade  in  those  sub- 
jects in  which  they  are  prepared  to  do  the  advanced  work,  without 
having  to  be  equally  well  prepared  in  the  other  subjects.  In  the 
shifting-group  method,  there  may  be  as  many  groups  in  as  many 
subjects  as  the  teacher  thinks  best,  and  promotions  may  take  place 
at  any  time.  The  aim  in  the  shifting  group  is  to  encourage  the  bright 
pupils  to  do  thorough  and  careful  work  while  the  slow  pupils  are 
being  brought  up  to  the  grade  standard.     The  primary  aim  of  the 

•  Van  Sickle,  J.  H.,  Witmer,  L.,  and  Ayres,  L.  P.  Provision  for  Exceptional  Chil- 
dren in  Public  Schools.    U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education  Bulletin,  1911,  No.  14,  p.  38. 

1°  Burk,  Caroline  F.,  Promotion  of  bright  and  slow  children.  Educational  Review, 
19:  March,  1900,  296-302. 


FLEXIBLE  PROMOTION  SCHEMES  17 

constant-group  method,  on  the  other  hand,  is  to  give  to  the  bright 
pupil  opportunity  to   advance  as  rapidly  as   possible. ^^ 

During  the  superintendency  of  Dr.  F.  E.  Spaulding  at  Newton, 
Massachusetts  (1904-14),  a  plan  was  developed  which,  with  some 
modifications,  has  become  very  popular.  In  this  ''Newton  Plan" 
the  elementary  program  of  studies  is  arranged  in  the  customary  eight 
grades,  and  each  grade  offers,  on  the  average,  an  amount  of  work 
sufficient  for  one  year.  The  chief  purpose  of  the  grade  lines,  how- 
ever, is  to  locate  teachers  and  pupils  as  to  the  work  they  are  doing 
at  any  particular  time;  the  lines  form  no  barrier  to  the  advancement 
of  the  pupils.  The  distinctive  feature  of  this  scheme  is  the  employ- 
ment of  unassigned  teachers,  who  have  no  regular  class  and  whose 
work  is  entirely  supplementary  to  that  of  the  regular  class  teachers. 
The  unassigned  teacher  is  in  charge  of  a  special  room,  to  which  come 
individual  pupils  or  groups  of  pupils  for  such  special  assistance  as 
they  may  need.  Usually  the  pupils  who  seek  this  help  are  those  who 
have  been  retarded  and  are  trying  to  get  up  to  grade,  but  sometimes 
they  are  bright  pupils  who  are  endeavoring  to  gain  a  grade  in  their 
school  progress.  The  system  of  gradation  is  so  flexible  that  when- 
ever the  work  of  the  grade  is  completed  in  any  subject  by  a  single 
pupil,  a  class,  or  a  group,  the  work  of  the  next  grade  is  taken  up  in 
that  subject,  without  regard  to  the  time  of  the  school  year.^^ 

A  unique  double  promotion  system,  which  has  been  called  the 
"Double  Tillage  Plan"  was  in  operation  in  Woburn,  Massachusetts, 
from  1894  to  1903.  In  this  plan  the  year's  work  for  each  grade  was 
covered  in  the  first  half-year,  and  then  gone  over  again  in  greater 
detail  during  the  second  half-year,  an  arrangement  which  made  it 
possible  for  bright  pupils  to  be  promoted  at  the  middle  of  the  year, 
thereby  doing  two  years'  work  in  one.  This  plan  was  in  operation 
during  nine  years,  and  during  that  time  1,252  pupils  received  mid- 
year promotions,  of  whom  938  obtained  a  second  promotion  at  the 
end  of  the  year.  In  the  later  years  of  the  plan,  the  subject  matter 
of  the  curriculum  was  increased  to  an  extent  which  made  it  very 

"  Holmes,  W.  H.,  School  Organization  and  the  Individual  Child,  pp.  51-54. 

Van  Sickle,  J.  H.,  Witmer,  L.,  and  Ayres,  L.  P.  Provision  for  Exceptional  Chil- 
dren in  Public  Schools,  United  States  Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin  1911,  No.  14,  p.  39. 

^  Newton,  Massachusetts,  School  Committee.  Annual  Report,  1913.  Holmes, 
W.  H.,  School  Organization  and  the  Individual  Child,  pp.  63-68. 


18  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  n 

difficult  to  do  a  year's  work  in  the  half-year,  and  consequently  greatly 
decreased  the  number  of  extra  promotions.  As  a  result  of  these 
conditions,  the  plan  was  abandoned,  except  in  the  first  and  second 
grades.^^ 

Plans  for  flexible  grading  have  become  quite  popular,  and  a 
great  number  of  the  cities  of  the  country,  small  as  well  as  large, 
have  adopted  some  one  of  these  plans  or  some  modification  of  it. 
Many  school  systems  have  made  combinations  by  picking  out  from 
two  or  three  of  the  different  schemes  those  features  which  seemed 
best  suited  to  local  needs.  An  example  of  such  an  adaptation  to  the 
requirements  of  a  small  system  is  found  in  a  plan  of  grade  promotion 
which  has  been  worked  out  by  Superintendent  P.  F.  Neverman,  of 
New  Richmond,  Wisconsin,  and  which  is  in  operation  at  the  present 
time  in  his  schools.  Superintendent  Neverman  bases  the  "New 
Richmond  Plan"  upon  the  conviction  that  the  ordinary  child,  as  well 
as  the  child  of  exceptional  ability,  can  do  the  work  of  the  eight  grades 
in  less  than  the  allotted  time;  that  the  association  in  the  same  classes 
of  average,  superior,  and  slow  pupils  is  hurtful  to  all  the  pupils,  no 
matter  of  which  type,  that  all  children  should  be  together  during  the 
first  grade;  and  that  all  should  do  all  the  work  called  for  in  the  pro- 
gram of  studies.  When  children  enter  the  first  grade  of  the  New 
Richmond  schools,  they  are  treated  as  individuals  of  equal  ability, 
but  later  in  the  year  they  are  separated  into  A  and  B  sections,  which 
are  adjusted  and  readjusted  throughout  the  whole  year.  At  the 
end  of  the  year,  a  careful  list  is  made  of  all  the  especially  apt  children 
who  have  been  regular  in  their  attendance,  and  who  are  physically 
in  good  condition,  and  they  are  promoted  to  the  A  class  of  the  second 
grade,  while  the  rest  of  the  first-grade  pupils  who  earn  promotion  go 
to  the  B  section.  The  A  section  will  do  one  and  one-third  year's 
work  during  the  second  year,  while  the  B  section  is  doing  only  the 
regular  year's  work,  and  will  thus  gain  one-third  of  a  year.  If  at 
any  time  a  child  in  the  B  section  develops  to  such  an  extent  that  he 
appears  able  to  do  more  work  than  his  class  is  doing,  he  may  be 
transferred  to  the  A  section  at  once.  This  arrangement  holds  through 
the  fourth  grade,  at  the  end  of  which  time  the  pupils  who  have 

"  McDonald,  R.  A.  F.  Adjustment  of  School  Organization  to  Variotts  Population 
Groups.  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University  Contributions  to  Education,  No.  75, 
p.  95.    See  also  Woburn,  Massachusetts,  School  Committee.    Annual  Reports,  1903,  1904. 


FLEXIBLE  PROMOTION  SCHEMES  19 

remained  in  the  A  section  have  completed  the  fifth-grade  work  and 
are  promoted  to  the  junior  high  school,  and  the  members  of  the  B 
section  take  up  the  work  of  the  fifth  grade,  in  which  there  is  only 
one  section.^'^ 

Similar  plans  of  grouping  children  according  to  their  ability, 
especially  in  the  lower  grades,  are  found  in  many  parts  of  the  country. 
In  Carthage,  New  York,  for  instance,  all  entrants  who  are  unable  to 
read,  begin  their  school  work  in  the  first  grade  in  much  the  same 
fashion.  Gradually  they  are  regrouped  so  as  to  form  three  divisions, 
of  which  the  first,  made  up  of  the  most  capable,  completes  a  certain 
amount  of  work  in  one  year.  The  second  group  is  allowed  one  and 
one-half  years  in  which  to  do  the  same  amount  of  work,  and  the 
third  group  does  it  in  two  years.  Before  the  close  of  the  first  year, 
it  may  have  happened  that  each  of  the  three  groups  has  been  re- 
divided  into  higher  and  lower  groups.^^  Bloomington,  Indiana,  has 
the  plan  of  grouping  the  bright  children  together  in  any  grade,  es- 
pecially in  the  primary  grades,  and  these  bright  groups  are  per- 
mitted to  advance  through  the  regular  course  of  study  in  a  shorter 
time  than  the  other  grades.^^  In  Johnstown,  Pennsylvania,  for 
several  years  the  upper-grade  children  have  been  congregated  in  one 
building  and  the  lower-grade  children  in  another,  and  the  various 
sections  of  the  same  grade  have  been  divided  into  fast,  intermediate, 
and  slow-moving  groups.  Each  group  covers  the  entire  work  for 
the  year,  but  the  bright  group  not  only  covers  it  more  thoroughly, 
but  more  intensively  than  the  other  groups,  and  invariably  gains 
time.  In  the  school-year  1915-16  about  12  per  cent  of  the  pupils 
in  the  elementary  schools  gained  from  one-half  to  one  year  of  school 
time;  44  per  cent  of  those  that  made  time  in  the  first  half-year  were 
in  the  first  three  grades;  and  in  the  latter  half,  80  per  cent  were  in  the 
first  three  grades. ^^ 

At  Arlington,  Massachusetts,  the  plan  of  grouping  pupils  accord- 
ing to  their  ability  is  extended  to  the  high  school.     In  the  Arlington 

^^  Neverman,  P.  F.  New  Richmond  plan  of  grade  promotion.  American  School 
Board  Journal,  54:  January,  1917,  38. 

15  Deffenbaugh,  W.  S.  Current  Progress  in  Schools  of  Cities  of  25,000  Population 
or  Less,  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education,  Report,  1914,  Vol.  I,  p.  97. 

1^  Letter  from  Superintendent  W.  A.  Myers. 

1'  Letter  from  Superintendent  J.  N.  Adee. 


20  NINETEENTHlYEARBOOK—PART  II 

High  School,  pupils  of  about  the  same  ability,  as  determined  by  the 
teachers'  observations  and  the  pupils'  grades  for  the  previous  year, 
are  grouped  together  at  the  beginning  of  the  year.  At  the  end  of 
the  first  two  months,  any  cases  of  obvious  misplacement  are  dealt 
with  by  means  of  redistribution,  and  whatever  changes  in  grouping 
seem  necessary  are  made  every  two  months  thereafter  throughout 
the  year.  In  every  subject  in  which  the  plan  is  used  there  are  three 
classifications,  rated  as  (1)  honor,  (2)  medium,  and  (3)  slow.  The 
honor  groups  do  more  work  in  a  given  subject  than  the  medium  and 
slow,  but  the  latter  are  expected  to  cover  at  least  the  minimal  re- 
quirements for  promotion.  The  work  done  by  the  medium  and  slow 
groups  is  said  to  be  about  the  same  as  that  required  of  a  regular  class, 
based  on  the  traditional  methods  of  selection.  In  order  to  earn 
promotion  in  any  group  a  pupil  must  have  an  average  better  than  D 
(67-69).  Marks  below  B  (80-89)  are  seldom  found  in  the  honor 
groups  and  marks  above  C  (70-79)  are  seldom  found  in  the  slow 
groups.^^ 

The  plan  of  promoting  by  separate  subjects,  rather  than  by  the 
average  mark  for  all  subjects  in  the  grade,  sometimes  works  to  the 
advantage  of  the  bright  pupils  by  making  it  easier  for  them  to  catch 
up  with  the  grade  above  them,  especially  when  there  is  added  a 
provision  for  individual  promotion.  Superintendent  A.  N.  Farmer, 
who  used  such  a  scheme  in  the  schools  of  Evanston,  Illinois,  said  of  it, 
in  a  letter  to  the  author: 

''The  whole  plan  is  based  on  the  theory  that  children  differ  in 
their  abilities,  capacities  and  aptitudes.  It  not  infrequently  happens 
that  a  considerable  part  of  the  class  is  forced  to  sit  idly  by  while 
the  teacher  is  struggUng  to  make  clear  a  point  which  one  or  more  in 
the  group  has  failed  to  grasp.  It  is  our  purpose  to  give  to  every 
child  an  opportunity  to  progress  as  rapidly  as  he  is  able  to  go.  The 
great  majority  of  youngsters  will  keep  together.  Those  who  are 
exceptional,  either  because  they  are  slow  or  particularly  able,  will  be 
limited  in  their  progress  only  by  their  own  ability  to  go  on." 

Because  it  so  clearly  indicates  the  object  of  this  plan  and  the 
method  of  its  operation,  as  well  as  to  show  how  it  offers  inducements 

^*  Clerk,  F.  E.  The  Arlington  plan  of  grouping  pupils  according  to  ability  in 
the  Arlington  High  School,  Arlmgton,  Massachusetts.  School  Review,  25:  January, 
1917,  26^7. 


FLEXIBLE  PROMOTION  SCHEMES  21 

to  the  bright  pupil,  I  take  the  liberty  of  quoting  a  circular  letter  which 
Superintendent  Farmer  sent  to  the  pupils  in  his  schools  at  the  time- 
when  the  plan  was  adopted. 

"To  the  Boys  and  Girls  in  the  Evanston  Public  Schools  of 
District  75: 

"Have  you  ever  felt  that  you  could  get  on  more  rapidly  in 
school  if  you  had  a  chance?  Have  you  ever  felt  discouraged 
when  you  have  failed  in  part  of  your  work  and  lost  a  whole 
year?  If  you  have,  you  will  be  interested  in  a  new  plan  for 
promoting  pupils  which  has  just  been  adopted. 

"The  reason  for  the  change  is  that  we  want  to  give  every 
boy  and  girl  a  chance  to  do  his  school  work  as  quickly  as  he  is 
able  to  do  it.  It  is  possible  that  you  are  strong  enough  to  do 
three  years'  work  in  two.  Perhaps  you  are  able  to  go  on  rapidly 
in  some  subjects,  while  in  others  you  need  more  time.  What- 
ever your  abilities  are,  we  want  to  help  you  to  make  the  most  of 
them,  so  that  you  may  prepare  for  high  school  as  quickly  as 
possible  and  without  loss  of  time. 

"Under  the  new  plan  we  shall  have  two  kinds  of  promotion, 
regular  and  special. 

"Regular  promotions  will  come  twice  a  year — about  February 
first  and  again  in  June.  You  will  be  required  to  do  over  again 
only  the  subjects  in  which  you  have  failed.  If,  for  example, 
you  are  a  fifth-grade  pupil  and  have  done  satisfactory  work  in 
everything  except  geography  and  spelling,  you  will  be  allowed 
to  do  sixth-grade  work  in  all  your  subjects  except  in  geography 
and  spelling.  These  you  will  do  with  the  fifth  grade  and  every- 
thing possible  will  be  done  to  help  you  to  'catch  up'  with  the 
sixth  grade  in  these  subjects  also.  Whether  you  succeed  or  not 
will  depend  on  how  hard  you  are  willing  and  able  to  work. 

"Special  promotion  will  be  made  at  any  time  when  a  pupil 
shows  he  is  able  to  do  the  work  of  a  higher  grade  in  one  or  more 
subjects.  Suppose,  for  example,  you  are  in  a  fourth  grade  and 
are  strong  in  arithmetic.  If  you  show  that  you  are  able  to  do 
much  more  than  the  class  is  doing  in  this  subject,  a  chance  will 
be  given  for  you  to  work  ahead  and  when  you  are  ready  you 
will  be  allowed  to  take  arithmetic  with  the  fifth  grade.  By  this 
plan  you  may  be  able  to  work  ahead  and  gain  much  time. 

"I  sincerely  hope  that  you  will  think  over  this  plan,  talk  it 
over  with  your  father  and  mother  and  teacher.  I  shall  be  glad 
to  have  you  write  me  about  any  plans  you  want  to  make  regard- 
ing your  present  or  future  school  work.  Perhaps  you  will  want 
to  earn  a  special  promotion  in  some  subject  you  do  particularly 
well.  If  so,  please  remember  that  we  shall  be  glad  to  help  you  in 
every  way  we  can.    It  pays  to  look  ahead  and  plan  for  the  future." 


22  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 

A  plan  practically  identical  with  this  is  in  use  at  Fond  du  Lac, 
Wisconsin.  In  the  elementary  schools  of  that  city,  promotion  is  by 
separate  subjects,  not  by  grades,  and  at  any  time  when  ability  to 
carry  the  work  in  an  advanced  grade  is  shown.  ''When  a  pupil  is 
noticeable  because  of  excellent  work  in  any  subject  and  his  scholar- 
ship in  general  warrants  the  effort,  and  his  physical  strength  is  con- 
sidered sufficient,  he  is  given  special  help  in  that  subject,  sometimes 
by  a  parent,  more  often  by  teacher  or  principal,  until  he  has  bridged 
the  gap  between  his  grade  and  the  succeeding  grade,  and  is  then 
advanced  in  that  subject.  This  is  not  done  without  consultation 
with  the  parent  and  a  willingness  evidenced  for  the  effort  to  be 
made."i» 

The  traditional,  and  probably  the  most  common,  method  of 
dealing  with  the  supernormal  child  in  the  school  has  been  merely  to 
let  him  skip  a  grade  or  a  class.  The  most  extensive  study  of  this 
procedure  and  its  results  is  one,  as  yet  unpublished,  made  by  Mr. 
B.  Q.  Hoskinson,  at  present  Superintendent  of  schools  at  Pinckney- 
ville,  Illinois,  while  pursuing  advanced  work  at  the  University  of 
lUinois.^^  He  studied  a  group  of  84  college  students  and  44  school 
children,  all  of  whom  had  been  permitted  to  skip  at  least  a  half 
year  of  the  regular  school  course.  Of  the  college  students,  67  had 
skipped  an  entire  grade.  Of  the  whole  group  81  per  cent  had  gifted 
ancestors;  83  per  cent  had  healthy  parents;  90  per  cent  were  healthy 
as  children;  93  per  cent  were  regular  in  school  attendance;  93  per  cent 
were  undoubtedly  able  in  school  work;  88  per  cent  had  been  urged 
by  school  authorities  to  gain  time  in  this  way;  only  3  per  cent  had 
ever  repeated  a  grade;  87  per  cent  believed  that  the  skipping  had 
been  advantageous  to  them;  and  in  75  per  cent  of  the  cases  the  grades 
skipped  had  been  below  the  seventh.  As  a  class  these  accelerates 
were  found  to  be  rapid  readers,  quick  learners,  earnest,  industrious, 
and  able  to  concentrate.  They  were  given  to  exploration  of  material 
on  their  own  account,  were  kept  in  good  condition  at  home,  and  had 
a  good  attitude  toward  the  school  instilled  into  them  by  their  parents. 
The  advantages  to  the  individual  most  often  named  were  the  saving 
of  time,  and  the  opportunity  for  keeping  busy  and  interested.     Dis- 

"  Roberts,  Superintendent  J.  E.    A  Working  Scheme  of  Promotional  Efficiency. 
20  Hoskinson,  B.  Q.    The  School  Progress  of  Gifted  Children.    Unpublished  master's 
essay  in  the  library  of  the  University  of  Illinois. 


FLEXIBLE  PROMOTION  SCHEMES  23 

advantages  mentioned  were  the  disturbance  of  social  adjustments, 
and,  less  often,  difficulty  in  keeping  up  with  advanced  work.  In 
concluding  his  study,  Hoskinson  recommends  that  in  country,  village, 
and  small-town  schools,  the  best  ten  per  cent  of  pupils  be  allowed  to 
skip  in  grades  below  the  seventh,  if  health  be  sound,  with  some  pro- 
vision to  bridge  the  gap,  if  only  by  a  few  hours  of  special  assistance 
at  home  or  at  school. 

The  plan  of  permitting  the  brighter  pupils  to  skip  a  part  of  the 
course  has  the  advantage  of  being  easy  of  operation,  so  far  as  surface 
indications  go,  at  any  rate;  for  it  does  not  interfere  with  any  system 
of  grading  or  promotion  which  the  particular  school  has  adopted. 
It  is  objectionable,  however,  in  that  it  offers  nothing  by  way  of  con- 
structive detail  and  does  not  partake  of  the  nature  of  a  positive 
program,  rather  having  the  appearance  of  a  mere  make-shift.  Oppor- 
tunity to  skip  a  grade  usually  comes  to  a  child  only  through  a  sug- 
gestion by  the  teacher;  and  unless  the  school  system  has  some  definite 
and  organized  way  of  determining  who  shall  be  entitled  to  skip 
grades,  and  some  method  of  searching  for  all  pupils  who  have  the 
ability  to  do  so,  opportunity  to  skip  a  grade  is  likely  to  be  the  result 
of  the  mere  chance  of  obtaining  the  interest  of  a  teacher  who  has 
initiative  and  energy  enough  to  follow  the  matter  up.  In  some 
school  systems,  however,  special  promotions  are  featured  and  teachers 
are  made  to  recognize  it  as  a  part  of  their  duties  to  be  on  the  watch 
for  all  possible  chances  to  bring  such  promotions  about.  Thus,  in 
Salt  Lake  City  the  plan  of  treatment  of  very  bright  children  is  by 
special  promotion,  although  in  certain  instances  where  special  pro- 
motion does  not  seem  advisable,  bright  children  are  assigned  supple- 
mentary reading  or  extra  work  in  the  fine  and  applied  arts.^^  Much 
the  same  thing  is  done  in  Kansas  City,  Missouri,  where,  in  addition 
to  a  flexible  promotion  system,  making  special  promotions  easy  to 
adjust,  exceptionally  bright  children  are  given  an  opportunity  to  do 
broader  work  than  is  given  to  the  average  child.  This  is  done  in 
the  way  of  additional  assignments,  additional  work  in  supplementary 
reading,  and  other  special  work  of  a  similar  nature.^^  In  Kansas 
City,  however,  it  was  found  that  less  than  three  per  cent  of  the  ele- 
mentary school  enrollment  received  special  promotions,  demotions, 

21  Letter  from  Superintendent  E.  A.  Smith. 
^  Letter  from  Superintendent  I.  I.  Cammack. 


24  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 

or  double  promotions  during  one-third  of  the  school  year  1914-15, 
and  that  it  was  two  and  one-half  times  easier  for  a  pupil  to  secure  a 
special  promotion  in  the  same  room  than  to  a  higher  class  in  another 
room,  although  the  'distance'  between  the  two  classes  is  no  greater 
in  the  one  case  than  in  the  other.^  Obviously,  then,  even  when  the 
special  promotion  plan  is  definitely  recognized  as  a  means  of  pro- 
moting the  advancement  of  bright  pupils,  grade  lines  put  a  limitation 
upon  the  child's  opportunity  to  gain  special  promotion,  and  it  may 
very  well  be  that  lack  of  interest  on  the  part  of  the  teacher,  or  some 
other  personal  factor,  is  largely  to  blame  for  that  limitation. 

One  way  in  which  the  objectionable  features  of  special  promotion 
which  involves  the  skipping  of  any  part  of  the  course  may  be  greatly 
lessened,  consists  in  shortening  the  promotion  interval,  so  that 
the  amount  of  subject  matter  to  be  made  up  is  correspondingly 
lessened.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  clear  that  if  that  interval  be  made 
very  short,  many  more  special  promotions  are  necessary  in  order 
to  make  a  gain  of  a  year  or  a  half-year  in  the  course,  and  consequently 
many  more,  though  slighter  ajdustments  must  be  made.  In  the 
Saint  Louis  public  schools,  as  they  are  now  organized,  each  grade  is 
divided  into  four  quarters  of  ten  weeks  each,  and  when  a  class  finishes 
a  quarter,  the  members  are  promoted  to  the  next  quarter,  even  though 
they  remain  in  the  same  room  where  they  have  been.  In  the  larger 
elementary  schools  there  are  classes  for  each  of  the  thirty-two  quarters 
of  the  eight-year  course.  The  time  which  each  class  will  spend  upon 
the  work  of  a  quarter  depends  largely  upon  the  policy  of  the  principal, 
who  is  given  great  liberty  in  this  matter.  Frequently  a  class  will  do 
thirty  weeks'  work  in  twenty,  and  sometimes  one  will  be  found  able 
to  do  twenty  weeks'  work  in  ten.  In  addition  to  the  regular  class 
promotions,  individual  promotions  may  be  made  at  any  time  in  the 
case  of  pupils  who  are  able  to  advance  faster  than  the  class.  Such 
promotions  are  made  after  consultation  between  the  principal  and 
the  teacher,  and  also,  in  case  it  seems  advisable,  conference  with  the 
parents.  Sometimes  pupils  who  are  thus  promoted  recite  with  the 
two  classes  for  a  time,  and  then  only  with  the  advanced  class.  In 
other  words,  they  skip  a  quarter.  Out  of  2,519  graduates  of  the 
elementary  schools  whose  school  records  have  been  examined,  twenty 

"  Melcher,  G.  Studies  by  the  Bureau  of  Research  and  EflBiciency  of  Kansas  City, 
Missouri.    The  Fifteenth  Yearbook  of  this  Society,  p.  131. 


FLEXIBLE  PROMOTION  SCHEMES  25 

per  cent  had  received  double  promotions,  while  eighteen  per  cent 
had  failed.  That  is,  the  number  of  pupils  who  required  three-fourths, 
or  less,  of  the  assigned  time  to  do  the  work  of  the  grades  was  slightly 
larger  than  the  number  of  those  who  required  more  than  the  assigned 
time.2^ 

In  Parkersburg,  West  Virginia,  whenever  children  are  found  who 
are  capable  of  doing  the  work  of  the  next  higher  grade,  they  are 
allowed  to  go  on  to  that  grade.  In  this  particular  system,  which  is 
no  doubt  typical  of  a  great  many,  promotions  are  semi-annual,  and 
the  special  promotion,  therefore,  involves  a  jump  covering  a  half- 
year's  work.25  In  Muskogee,  Oklahoma,  bright  children  are  enrolled 
and  recite  in  the  regular  classrooms,  though  on  recommendation  of 
the  teacher  and  principal  they  may  be  permitted  to  skip  grades. 
There  are  in  the  schools  of  that  city  quite  a  number  of  children  who 
have  been  thus  accelerated,  and  they  are  doing  very  well  the  work 
of  classes  advanced  for  their  chronological  age.  In  order  to  make 
up  for  the  deficiencies  which  may  occur  because  of  skipping  grades, 
principals  will  sometimes  give  special  instruction  in  their  offices.^ 
In  Richmond,  Indiana,  in  the  first  six  grades  the  bright  children,  with 
the  slow  ones,  are  coached  by  the  kindergarten  teachers  and  the 
principals,  and,  under  a  flexible  system  of  promotion,  are  placed  at 
any  time  in  the  grade  where,  in  the  judgment  of  the  teacher  and 
principal,  they  can  do  the  best  work.^^  Carthage,  New  York,  pro- 
vides a  special  teacher  in  the  lower  grades  whose  entire  time  is  ex- 
pended in  coaching  backward  pupils  and  helping  the  brilliant  ones 
to  jump  to  the  next  higher  division,^^  and  Coshocton,  Ohio,  has  two 
such  teachers.^^ 

At  the  B.  F.  Day  School  in  Seattle,  frequently  during  recent  years 
as  many  as  ten  per  cent  of  the  total  enrollment  have  advanced  one 
year  and  a  half  in  the  course  in  one  year's  time.  The  school  has  an 
extra  teacher,  known  as  the  auxiliary  teacher,  who  devotes  about  a 

^  Stevens,  W.  F.  Relation  of  progress  of  pupils  to  actual  attendance,  elemen- 
tary Schools  of  Saint  Louis,  Missouri.  Ediicational  Administration  and  Supervision, 
3:  January,  1917,  p.  14. 

^  Letter  from  Superintendent  F.  M.  Longanecker. 

^  Letter  from  Superintendent  E.  S.  Monroe. 

2^  Letter  from  Superintendent  J.  T.  Giles. 

28  United  States  Commissioner  of  Edmation,  Report,  1914,  Vol.  I,  p.  97. 

^^  Letter  from  Superintendent  Charles  E.  Bryant. 


26  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 

fourth  of  her  time  to  assisting  pupils  to  make  special  promotions, 
and  the  rest  of  her  time  in  helping  other  pupils  to  maintain  their 
present  classification.  Which  ones  deserve  special  promotion  is 
determined  by  the  principal  as  one  of  his  special  problems  in  super- 
vision, and  in  conference  with  the  teachers  interested.  Many  of  the 
courses  of  study  allow  for  a  minimum  in  special  cases — an  arrange- 
ment which  is  often  of  advantage  in  this  connection,  for  in  some  cases 
the  specially  promoted  pupil  is  not  held  to  covering  all  the  material 
in  the  course.  If  some  of  the  ability  to  do  advanced  work  depends 
more  upon  the  pupils'  ability  than  upon  a  definite  amount  covered  in 
the  preceding  grades,  they  may  be  allowed  to  skip  part  of  such  work 
entirely.^^ 

An  examination  of  the  different  plans  of  grading  and  promotion 
which  we  have  discussed,  including  the  various  plans  for  special 
promotions  or  skipping  of  classes,  will  show  that  each  of  them  makes 
some  provision  for  capable  children  in  at  least  one  of  the  following 
three  ways:  (1)  they  do  more  work  than  ordinary  pupils,  but  in  the 
same  time;  or  (2)  they  do  a  different  kind  or  type  of  work,  with  no 
gain  of  time;  or  (3)  they  are  allowed  to  do  the  same  work,  or  work 
differing  only  slightly  from  it,  but  in  less  time.  At  first  thought,  it 
might  seem  as  if  among  these  different  arrangements  there  might 
be  found  one  that  would  fit  ideally  the  needs  of  the  gifted  child, 
but,  while  they  are  better  than  no  arrangement  at  all,  they  do  not, 
in  our  judgment,  afford  the  best  kind  of  adaptation  of  school  work 
to  the  child  whose  performance  stands  out  as  of  a  quality  far  above 
the  average.  The  schemes  for  flexible  grading,  because  of  the  desire 
on  the  part  of  teachers  and  principal  to  maintain  something  like  an 
equality  of  numbers  in  the  membership  of  the  different  classes  or 
groups,  operate  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  the  selection  of  rapidly 
advancing  pupils  too  broad,  unless  a  considerable  number  of  different 
groups  is  provided  within  each  grade;  while  in  the  schemes  for  special 
promotion,  or  skipping  grades,  selection  is  too  likely  to  rest  on  mere 
accident,  as  has  already  been  shown.  These  plans  are  all  at  fault, 
too,  in  that  they  make  only  indirectly  at  best  any  contribution  to 
that  pedagogy  of  the  supernormal,  which,  as  Stern  points  out,  is 

»»  Letter  from  Principal  A.  S.  Gist. 

See  also  Gist,  A.  S.  The  acceleration  of  pupils.  School  and  Society ^  5:  January 
27, 1917, 116-118. 


FLEXIBLE  PROMOTION  SCHEMES  27 

needed  from  a  sociological  point  of  view  as  a  counterbalance  to  the 
pedagogy  of  the  subnormal.  If  defective  children  are  entitled  to 
special  educational  treatment  and  special  study  for  the  purpose  of 
discovering  what  methods  of  instruction  are  best  adapted  to  them, 
why  are  not  children  who  are  just  as  far  removed  from  the  average, 
but  in  the  other  direction,  just  as  much  entitled  to  special  educa- 
tional opportunity  and  a  special  pedagogy?  All  the  arguments  for 
special  rooms  or  classes  for  the  subnormal  can  be  made  to  apply 
just  as  effectively  in  defense  of  similar  arrangements  for  the  gifted, 
or  supernormal.  In  truth,  educators  are  beginning  to  realize  the 
need  of  special  classes  or  special  rooms  for  gifted  children  and  they 
have  already  been  established  in  a  number  of  American  cities. 


CHAPTER  II 

SPECIAL  ROOMS  FOR  GIFTED  PUPILS 

The  development  of  the  interest  among  educators  in  special 
facilities  for  the  instruction  of  gifted  pupils  may  be  clearly  traced 
through  successive  volumes  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  National  Educa- 
tion Association,  the  Bulletins  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Educa- 
tion, and  the  Reports  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education.  The  dis- 
cussion of  the  Saint  Louis  plan  of  grading  by  Dr.  W.  T.  Harris  before 
the  National  Education  Association  in  1872,  as  well  as  the  papers 
and  discussions  upon  the  general  topic  of  grading  and  promotion  at 
the  1898  meeting,  to  which  we  have  already  referred,  incidentally 
included  reference  to  the  needs  of  abler  pupils  and  explanations  of 
how  these  needs  might  be  met  by  the  adoption  of  a  more  flexible 
system  of  grading.  During  the  meeting  of  the  National  Council 
of  the  National  Education  Association,  at  Los  Angeles,  in  July, 
1907,  Superintendent  J.  H.  Van  Sickle,  then  of  Baltimore,  pointed 
out  the  advantages  obtained  by  making  special  arrangements  for 
the  education  of  pupils  of  more  than  average  capability,  and  described 
the  plans  for  doing  this  which  were  in  use  in  Baltimore  and  in  Wor- 
cester, Massachusetts.^  C.  H.  Kendall,  then  Superintendent  of 
Schools  at  Indianapolis,  at  the  meeting  of  the  Department  of  Super- 
intendence at  Washington,  in  February,  1908,  discussed  the  advisa- 
bility of  modifying  instruction  in  the  case  of  brilliant  pupils,  and 
described  the  operation  of  two  special  rooms  for  bright  children  which 
had  just  been  established  in  his  school  system.^  The  preliminary 
report  of  the  Committee  on  Provision  for  Exceptional  Children  in 
the  Public  Schools,  made  to  the  National  Council  in  June,  1908, 
contained  a  discussion  of  special  schools  for  bright  children  and  of 
the  principles  that  should  control  the  course  of  study  in  such  schools.^ 
In  an  address  before  the  Child  Study  Section  of  the  National  Educa- 

1  Proc.  Nat.  Educ.  Assoc,  1907,  pp.  360-361. 
«  Same,  1908,  pp.  147-152. 
» Same,  pp.  350-351. 

28 


SPECIAL  ROOMS  FOR  GIFTED  PUPILS  29 

tion  Association  at  the  same  meeting,  Supervising  Principal  Charles 
A.  A.  J.  Miller,  of  Baltimore,  argued  for  a  more  sympathetic  treat- 
ment of  bright  pupils  and  a  more  careful  consideration  of  their  needs."* 
The  Journal  of  Proceedings  for  1910  contains  an  article  by  Van 
Sickle  on  provision  for  gifted  children  in  the  public  schools,^  and 
Superintendent  J.  G.  Collicott,  of  Indianapolis,  read  before  the 
Department  of  Superintendence  at  Cincinnati,  in  February,  1915, 
a  paper  treating  of  the  current  methods  of  dealing  with  exceptionally 
bright  children  in  the  public  schools.^ 

As  to  reference  to  gifted  children  in  the  publications  of  the 
Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin  1911,  Number  14,  of  that  bureau, 
prepared  by  J.  H.  Van  Sickle,  Lightner  Witmer,  and  L.  P.  Ayres,  and 
entitled  Provision  for  Exceptional  Children  in  Public  Schools,  contains 
a  thorough-going  discussion  of  the  different  methods  of  adapting 
the  work  of  the  school  to  bright  children  which  were  in  use  at  that 
time,  and  in  the  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  for 
1913,^  and  again  in  the  report  of  the  same  official  for  1915,^  space  is 
given  to  a  consideration  of  the  same  general  topic.  One  very  signifi- 
cant feature  which  may  be  noted  in  connection  with  these  publica- 
tions is  that  the  gifted  child  seems  to  have  established  his  right  to 
consideration  along  with  other  types  of  exceptional  children,  so  that 
no  discussion  of  the  education  of  exceptional  children  is  now  complete 
unless  some  attention  is  given  to  the  education  of  the  gifted. 

The  bulletin  published  in  1911,  to  which  reference  is  made  above, 
states  that  at  that  time  five  cities  had  special  classes  for  gifted  chil- 
dren. Witmer,^  in  the  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education 
for  1913,  gives  the  names  .of  twenty-seven  cities  making  such  provi- 
sion, in  addition  to  the  original  five.  Wallin,  in  1914,  reports  22 
cities  as  having  classes  for  bright  children.^'^  Evidently,  however, 
in  both  these  lists  there  are  included  some  cities  whose  provision  for 

4  Same,  pp.  958-959. 

5  Same,  1910,  pp.  321  flf. 

6  Same,  1915,  pp.  457-462. 

^  United  States  Commissioner  of  Edtication,  Report,  1913,  Vol.  I,  p.  445. 

8  Same,  1915,  Vol.  I,  p.  40. 

^  Witmer,  L.  Progress  in  education  of  exceptional  children  in  public  schools 
during  the  year  1913,  in  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  1913,  Vol.  I,  Chap. 
XX. 

10  WaUin,  J.  E.  W.     The  Mental  Health  of  the  School  Child,  p.  427. 


30  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 

gifted  children  consisted  merely  of  plans  of  flexible  grading,  permit- 
ting the  unusually  able  pupil  to  make  more  than  normally  rapid  prog- 
ress through  the  grades,  not  of  special  rooms  for  gifted  children  only. 
Exact  figures  upon  the  number  of  such  rooms  in  existence  are  dif- 
ficult to  obtain,  for  the  reason  that  any  question  as  to  provision  for 
gifted  children  is  likely  to  be  liberally  interpreted.  In  a  doctor's 
dissertation  from  Columbia  University  by  R.  A.  F.  McDonald, 
published  in  1915,  a  list  is  given  of  22  cities  that  reported  ''special 
schools  or  classes  for  exceptionally  gifted  pupils  in  their  public  school 
system. "^^  I  have  checked  up  this  list,  and  find  that  one  of  these 
cities  has  never  had  any  other  provision  for  gifted  children  than  an 
occasional  special  promotion,  another  has  had  a  room  for  backward 
children,  but  never  one  for  the  gifted,  one  has  a  "mixed"  room  for 
both  dull  and  gifted(!),  and  two  provide  auxiliary  teachers  who,  in 
addition  to  coaching  backward  pupils,  give  assistance  to  pupils  who 
are  trying  for  special  promotion.  In  1917  Miss  Elizabeth  L.  Woods 
stated  that  45  cities  had  classes  formed  of  gifted  children  only ,^2  j^^t 
I  am  sure  that  these  figures  were  too  high,  if  by  ''classes"  is  meant 
groups  of  children  which  are  definitely  formed  for  the  purpose  of 
receiving  a  type  of  instruction  different  from  that  given  the  rest  of  the 
school.  The  more  rapidly  moving  groups  which  form  a  part  of  many 
of  the  schemes  of  flexible  grading  do,  it  is  true,  closely  approximate 
special  classes  for  gifted  children,  but  they  are  not  so  definitely 
established  as  rightly  to  be  considered  special  classes,  nor  is  the  basis 
of  selection  such  as  to  entitle  them  to  the  title  "gifted,"  except,  per- 
haps, in  a  few  instances. 

In  the  following  discussion  of  special  classes  for  very  bright 
children,  only  those  will  be  mentioned  which  are  definitely  known  to 
have  been  established  for  the  particular  purpose  of  meeting  the  needs 
of  children  of  marked  ability.  It  is  not  claimed  that  the  list  given 
here  is  at  all  complete  even  for  the  spring  of  1917  when  it  was  made, 
but  it  is  authentic,  and  comprehensive  enough  to  furnish  representa- 
tive illustrations  of  the  various  types  of  such  rooms  or  classes  as 
have  existed  or  are  in  existence  at  the  present  time. 

^^  McDonald,  R.  A.  F.  Adjustment  of  School  Organization  to  Various  Population 
Groups.    Teachers  College,  Columbia  University,  Contributions  to  Education,  No.  75. 

^  Woods,  Elizabeth  L.  Provision  for  the  gifted  child.  Educational  Administra- 
tion and  Supervision,  3:  March,  1917,  139-149. 


SPECIAL  ROOMS  FOR  GIFTED  PUPILS  31 

In  1900,  in  one  of  the  public  schools  of  New  York  City  there  were 
organized  ''rapid  advancement  classes,"  which  concerned  themselves 
exclusively  with  bright  pupils.  This  arrangement  still  obtains; 
that  is,  principals  of  individual  schools  are  given  permission  to  organ- 
ize special  classes  for  the  rapid  advancement  of  bright  pupils.  Many 
principals  organize  so-called  "plus"  classes  for  the  purpose  of  enabling 
pupils  to  cover  two  terms  in  one  or  three  terms  in  two.  These 
classes  are  formed  of  exceptionally  bright  children,  though  occa- 
sionally 'hold-overs'  from  the  term  before  are  admitted.  Accelerated 
classes  of  another  type,  known  as  "E"  classes,  exist,  but  these  classes 
are  formed  to  enable  over-age  pupils  to  gain  a  term  or  two,  rather 
than  to  hasten  the  progress  of  bright  pupils.  About  1915  rapid- 
advancement  classes  were  organized  in  three  schools  for  the  purpose 
of  covering  the  seventh-,  eighth-,  and  ninth-years'  work,  that  is, 
the  last  two  years  of  the  elementary  school  and  the  first  year  of  the 
high  school,  in  two  years.  Some  among  these  classes  were  formed  in 
the  Speyer  School  as  an  annex  to  Public  School  43,  Manhattan. 
Specially  good  teachers  were  selected,  and  very  considerable  help 
was  given  by  the  teachers  from  Teachers  College. ^^ 

The  first  really  definite  provision  for  the  acceleration  of  capable 
children  seems  to  have  been  made,  however,  at  Worcester,  Massa- 
chusetts, where,  in  September,  1901,  so-called  "preparatory  schools" 
were  opened  for  the  purpose  of  helping  the  able  child  of  the  upper 
grades.  This  plan,  we  understand,  is  still  in  operation.  Pupils 
selected  from  the  different  schools  of  the  city  are  gathered  at  con- 
venient centers  to  receive  instruction  from  teachers  of  more  than 
ordinary  ability.  At  first,  these  schools  received  pupils  from  grades 
seven,  eight,  and  nine,  but  entrance  from  the  seventh  grade  has 
since  been  discontinued.  In  addition  to  the  regular  work  of  the 
remaining  grammar  grades,  work  is  given  in  English,  French,  German, 
and  Latin;  so  that  after  two  years  of  work  in  these  preparatory 
schools,  the  pupils  enter  the  high  school  with  a  full  year's  credit  in 
English,  French,  German,  or  Latin,  and  without  having  slighted  any 
of  the  grade  subjects.^'* 

In  the  fall  of  1902,  through  the  efforts  of  Superintendent  J.  H. 
Van   Sickle,    there   were   estabUshed   in   Baltimore   special   classes 

^3  Letter  from  Acting  Superintendent  Gustave  StraubenmuUer. 

1*  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  Public  Schools.    Annual  Reports,  1902, 1904, 1912. 


32  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 

known  as  ''preparatory  centers,"  which  were  quite  similar  to  Wor- 
cester's preparatory  schools.  At  present  (1917)  there  are  three  of 
these  preparatory  centers  in  the  city,  all  organized  on  the  depart- 
mental plan.  The  first  step  in  the  selection  of  pupils  for  these  centers 
is  the  sending  of  a  circular  from  the  superintendent's  office  to  each 
elementary-school  principal,  asking  him  to  have  his  sixth-grade 
teachers  make  out  a  card  for  each  student  in  that  grade,  showing 
attendance,  studiousness,  application,  ability,  and  likelihood  of 
success  in  the  work  of  the  preparatory  center.  These  cards  are 
turned  in  at  the  superintendent's  office  where  they  are  gone  over 
and  the  selection  made.  A  printed  circular  is  then  sent  out  to  the 
parent  of  each  child  in  the  selected  group,  in  order  that  the  arrange- 
ment may  be  fully  understood  by  all.^^  This  circular  gives  such  a 
complete  and  lucid  explanation  of  the  formation  and  work  of  the 
preparatory  centers  that  I  take  the  following  quotation  from  it: 

"Those  children  who  have  made  a  sufficiently  good  record 
in  the  sixth  grade  may  either  continue  their  schooling  in  the 
regular  seventh  and  eighth  grades,  or  they  may  complete  the 
elementary  school  course  in  the  seventh-  and  eighth-grade  pre- 
paratory classes,  as  their  parents  prefer. 

"In  the  preparatory  classes  the  regular  studies  of  the  grades 
are  continued,  but  Latin  and  a  modern  language,  German  or 
French,  are  offered  as  additional  studies  of  high  school  grade, 
together  with  advanced  work  in  English.  In  these  three  extra 
studies  credits  are  allowed  which  count  toward  the  high-school 
diploma.  The  experience  of  the  past  thirteen  years  shows  that 
pupils  that  have  been  successful  in  preparatory-school  work  can 
complete  the  higher  course  in  the  Baltimore  City  College  or  the 
girls'  high  schools  in  three  years,  thus  saving  one  year. 

"The  School  Board  has  authorized  (if  numbers  permit)  the 
arrangement  of  the  studies  in  the  preparatory  centers  so  that 
boys  preparing  for  the  Polytechnic  Institute  may  take  advanced 
work  in  mathematics  instead  of  Latin.  In  this  way,  although 
there  may  be  no  shortening  of  the  time  required  to  secure  the 
Polytechnic  Institute  diploma,  the  start  that  the  boys  will 
have  secured  in  high-school  mathematics,  German,  and  English, 
will  make  their  work  in  the  Institute  decidedly  lighter  during 
the  first  year  and  increase  their  chances  of  success  as  Institute 
students. 

^*  Patterson,  M.  Rose.    A  Preparatory  Center  in  Baltimore,  William  Rinehart 
School  No.  52.   Atlantic  Educational  Journal,  12:  January  1917,  234-238. 


SPECIA  L  ROOMS  FOR  GIFTED  PUPILS  33 

"It  is  essential  that  pupils  who  enter  these  classes  shall  be 
of  good  ability,  studious  in  their  habits,  and  regular  in  atten- 
dance. The  amount  of  work  required  does  not  exceed  that 
which  such  pupils,  if  in  good  health,  can  easily  accomplish  by 
systematic  and  daily  effort.  The  extra  studies  are  a  help  in  the 
regular  studies.  A  child  who  is  studying  Latin  or  German  or 
French  is  in  a  very  real  sense  studying  English  too;  his  mastery 
of  English  is  made  easier,  not  harder,  by  his  study  of  the  foreign 
language  side  by  side  with  his  English.  In  early  years,  also, 
one  can  most  easily  master  the  elements  of  a  foreign  language. 

"In  preparatory  classes  a  one-session  day  is  held,  from 
9  a.m.  to  2  p.m.  High-school  hours  are  observed  on  account  of 
the  distance  of  the  preparatory  centers  from  many  of  the  homes. 
Since  little  study  time  can  be  had  in  school,  pupils  who  enter 
these  classes  need  to  devote  not  less  than  two  hours  each  day  to 
home  preparation  of  lessons. "^^ 

Two  preparatory  centers  similar  to  those  in  Baltimore  were 
established  in  Indianapolis  in  1908.  These  were  also  organized 
upon  the  departmental  plan  and  were  open  to  pupils  ready  for  the 
seventh  grade.  Their  membership  was  limited  to  twenty-five,  and 
a  half  year  of  high-school  work  was  gained. ^^  At  present  (1917) 
there  is  only  one  such  special  class  in  the  city.  This  is  formed  from 
children  selected  from  the  'A'  classes  of  the  seventh  grade,  and  its 
members  finish  the  remaining  year  and  a  half  of  elementary-school 
work  in  a  year,  at  the  same  time  doing  enough  work  in  Latin  and 
algebra  to  secure  half  a  year  of  high-school  credit.  They  are  con- 
sequently able  to  enter  the  high  school  with  a  saving  of  a  year's 
time,  one  half  of  which  has  been  gained  from  the  grades,  and  the 
other  half  from  the  high  school.^^ 

In  Cincinnati,  in  September,  1910,  a  class  for  superior  children 
was  organized  in  the  Eleventh  District  School,  with  the  design  that 
each  member  be  permitted  to  pursue  his  own  course,  under  proper 
guidance,  without  regard  to  the  progress  of  his  companions,  and  with 
the  expectation  that  it  might  be  possible  to  accomplish  much  more 
than  an  ordinary  year's  work.     For  this  class,  32  pupils  were  selected 

^«  Superintendent  C.  J.  Koch.    Preparatory  Class  Circular,  January  14,  1916. 

^^  Kendall,  C.  N.  What  modifications  are  necessary  to  secure  suitable  recognition 
for  pupils  of  varying  ability,  particularly  the  ablest?  Proc.  Nat.  Educ.  Assoc,  1908, 
pp.  147-152. 

18  Letter  from  Supervising  Principal  Lizzie  J.  Stearns,  School  Thirty-two,  Indian- 
apolis. 


34  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 

on  the  basis  of  the  judgment  of  the  teachers  with  whom  they  had 
worked.  Seventeen  of  them  were  ready  for  the  fifth  grade,  nine 
for  the  fourth,  and  the  remaining  were  unclassified.  Of  these  32 
pupils,  25  succeeded  in  doing  two  years'  work  in  one,  and  thus  gained 
a  whole  year.^^  Although  Cincinnati  provided  no  special  classes  for 
gifted  children  for  some  years  after  the  initial  experiment,  it  has 
lately  been  definitely  decided  to  institute  such  classes;  teachers  have 
been  appointed,  and  the  director  of  the  psychological  laboratory 
has  been  given  the  work  of  testing  the  children  who  are  recommended 
as  possible  members.^'^ 

In  the  same  year  and  month  in  which  Cincinnati  established  its 
"superior"  class,  Harrisburg,  Pennsylvania,  made  provision  for 
exceptionally  gifted  children  by  establishing  special  schools  exclu- 
sively for  their  instruction.  Two  such  schools  were  maintained 
during  the  year  1910-1911,  and  this  number  was  increased  to  three 
in  the  fall  of  1911.  Each  of  the  latter  contained  about  30  pupils 
selected  from  those  who  were  ready  to  enter  the  eighth  grade,  and 
these  pupils  covered  the  work  of  the  eighth  and  ninth  grades  in  one 
year,  thus  saving  a  year's  time  in  the  elementary-school  course,  which 
at  that  time  was  nine  years  in  length.^^  Harrisburg,  however,  has 
since  changed  from  nine  to  eight  elementary  grades,  and  because  of 
the  congestion  thereby  caused,  the  special  schools  were  abandoned.^^ 

The  first  "rapid-advancement  class"  in  Boston  was  established 
January  3,  1913,  at  the  Lewis  School.  Thirty  of  the  brightest  chil- 
dren of  the  fifth  and  sixth  grades,  15  from  each  grade,  were  selected 
and  placed  under  the  control  of  one  teacher,  with  whom  they  re- 
mained until  they  were  graduated  from  the  elementary  school.  The 
upper  division  of  this  class  graduated  in  June,  1914,  having  com- 
pleted the  sixth,  seventh,  and  eighth  grades  in  one  and  a  half  years, 
or  in  half  of  the  regular  time.  The  lower  division  graduated  a  year 
earlier   than  it  would   have   under   ordinary  circumstances.     The 

^"Unrich,  Flora.  A  year's  work  in  a  "superior"  class.  Psychological  Clinic,  5: 
January,  1912,  245-250. 

20  Letter  from  Doctor  Helen  T.  Woolley,  1917. 

21  Harrisburg  Public  Schools,  Harrisburg,  Pennsylvania,  Report,  1912.  Also 
Downes,  F.  E.  Seven  years  with  unusually  gifted  pupils,  Psychological  Clinic,  6: 
March,  1912, 13-17. 

"  Letter  from  Superintendent  F.  E.  Downes. 


SPECIAL  ROOMS  FOR  GIFTED  PUPILS  35 

second  class  of  the  kind  was  organized  at  the  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes 
School,  in  March,  1913.  It  contained  30  pupils,  20  boys  and  10  girls, 
selected  from  the  ablest  pupils  of  the  seven  sixth  grades  in  the  dis- 
trict.23  In  1914,  there  were  five  of  these  classes.^''  In  1917  there 
were  in  full  operation  in  Boston  13  rapid-advancement  classes, 
formed  for  the  express  purpose  of  giving  the  bright,  intelligent, 
ambitious,  healthy  pupils  a  chance  to  obtain  three  years'  work  in 
two.  A  class  is  formed  as  follows:  The  principal  of  a  populous  dis- 
trict canvasses  with  the  prospective  teacher  of  the  rapid-advancement 
class,  the  pupils  who  have  received  promotion  into  the  sixth  grade. 
From  perhaps  six  classes  he  selects  30  of  the  most  promising  children, 
pupils  whose  marks  have  been  the  best  up  through  the  grades,  whose 
health  is  certified  to  by  the  school  attendant  physician,  and  who  are 
recommended  by  their  respective  teachers  for  the  rapid-advancement 
class.  These  pupils  furnish  the  rapid-advancement  teacher  with  a 
letter  from  their  parents,  signifying  their  permission  and  wish  that 
the  pupils  should  be  admitted  to  the  advanced  class.^ 

In  Louisville,  Kentucky,  an  opportunity  class  for  accelerated 
children  formed  in  September,  1914,  made  it  possible  for  gifted 
pupils  to  accomplish  two  years'  work  in  one.^^  Louisville,  in  1917, 
when  visited  by  the  writer,  had  two  special  classes  for  bright  children, 
but  they  differed  from  one  another  both  in  organization  and  in  pur- 
pose. One  of  them,  located  at  the  Sixth  Street  School,  contained 
about  40  pupils  in  Grades  4 A  and  4B.  These  children  were  drawn 
from  several  schools  in  the  district,  and  remained  in  the  class  but 
half  a  year.  The  aim  of  this  class  was  to  gain  half  a  year  in  the  ele- 
mentary course,  by  covering  the  work  of  a  whole  year  during  the 
half  year  spent  in  this  ''accelerated  class,"  as  it  was  called.  After 
having  done  this,  the  pupils  were  returned  to  their  own  schools  and 
entered  upon  the  next  year's  work.  The  room  contained  a  few 
pupils  who  were  over-age,  because  of  entering  school  late,  of  losing 
time  by  sickness  or  moving,  or  similar  reasons — in  other  words, 
pupils  who,  although  chronologically  retarded,  are  not  to  be  classed 
as  dull. 

23  School  Document  No.  10,  1913,  Boston  Public  Schools. 

^  School  Document  No.  11, 1914,  Boston  Public  Schools. 

^  Letter  from  Assistant  Superintendent  A.  L.  Rafter. 

»  Louisville,  Kentucky,  Fifth  Report  of  the  Board  of  Education,  1915-1916,  p.  32. 


36  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 

The  other  class,  known  as  the  "opportunity  class,"  was  located 
at  the  Louisville  Normal  School,  and  contained  ten  boys  and  ten 
girls,  most  of  whom  were  in  the  4B  grade,  although  there  were  one 
or  two  especially  bright  children  from  the  second  and  third  grades. 
A  much  more  careful  selection  had  been  made  for  this  class  than  for 
the  other,  in  that  all  pupils  who  were  considered  as  fit  for  enrollment 
in  it  were  tested  with  the  Stanford  Revision  of  the  Binet-Simon  Scale 
by  the  Director  of  the  Psychological  Laboratory,  and  none  with  an 
intelligence  quotient  less  than  120  was  accepted.     The  primary  aim 
in  this  room  was  not  to  gain  time,  though  it  turned  out  that  progress 
more  rapid  than  normal  was  made,  but  rather  to  furnish  an  abund- 
ance of  cultural  material  and  to  give  the  pupils  a  greatly  enriched 
course.     In  addition  to  the  regular  subjects  of  the  fourth  grade 
they  were  given  instruction  in  German,  which  was  taught  entirely 
by  the  conversational  method.     The  classroom  was  very  well  fur- 
nished with  desks  of  the  movable  chair  type,  large,  round,  low  tables 
and  small  chairs,  a  piano,  a  Victrola,  and  a  good  assortment  of  pic- 
tures.    The  class  was  at  the  start  placed  in  charge  of  the  teacher  of 
methods  in  the  normal  school,  assisted  by  one  of  the  normal-school 
cadets.     It  was  organized  about  February  1st,  1917.^' 

In  September,  1914,  the  55  most  capable  students  in  the  seventh 
and  eighth  grades  of  the  schools  of  Lead,  South  Dakota,  were  segre- 
gated into  two  special  rooms  as  an  experiment.  The  rate  of  progress 
was  observed,  and  it  was  soon  concluded  that  they  could  do  three 
semesters  of  work  in  two  semesters  of  time.  This  they  all  accom- 
plished, and  when  in  September,  1915,  their  work  was  compared 
with  the  students  who  had  gone  at  the  normal  rate,  the  rapid  group 
received  a  higher  grade  than  the  normal  group.  In  1915-16,  two 
rooms  were  organized  for  the  most  capable  students  of  the  third 
and  fourth  grades,  and  they,  too,  made  three  semesters  of  work  in 
one  school  year.  The  next  year  there  were  three  capable  groups; 
(1)  a  class  of  15  beginners,  (2)  a  class  of  16  in  Grade  2A,  and  (3)  a 
class  of  15  in  Grade  4A.  Of  these  three  groups,  the  first  was  coached 
by  the  principal  and  the  latter  two  by  the  regular  teachers,  who  also 
had  student  assistants.     It  is  the  policy  in  Lead  that  whenever  and 

"  Since  this  was  written  an  accbunt  of  the  work  of  this  class  has  been  prepared  by 
Miss  Race,  who  gave  the  Binet  examinations.  See  Henrietta  Race.  A  study  of  a  class 
of  children  of  superior  intelligence,  Jour,  of  Educ.  Psych.,  9:  Feb.  1918,  91-98. 


SPEC! A L  ROOMS  FOR  GIFTED  PUPILS  37 

wherever  such  a  group  of  capable  students  can  be  formed,  they  are 
segregated  under  the  care  of  especially  strong  teachers,  in  order  that 
they  may  have  the  opportunity  of  making  faster  progress  than  they 
otherwise  would.^^ 

'  In  1914,  in  the  Franklin  School,  Framingham,  Massachusetts, 
36  pupils,  selected  for  their  scholarship  and  comprising  the  upper 
third  of  the  sixth-grade  pupils  in  that  school,  were  formed  into  a 
special  rapid-advancement  class.  The  same  teacher  stayed  with 
the  group  for  two  years,  and  at  the  end  of  that  time  they  had  com- 
pleted the  work  of  the  sixth  and  seventh  grades  and  more  than  two- 
thirds  of  the  work  of  the  eighth  grade.  In  September,  1916,  these 
pupils  were  promoted  to  the  ninth  grade  and  enrolled  in  the  various 
rooms  of  that  grade,  where  they  did  work  of  a  character  far  above 
the  average  of  the  class.^^ 

In  the  Central  Intermediate  School,  of  Jacksonville,  lUinois, 
which  is  a  departmental  school  given  over  to  the  seventh  and  eighth 
grades,  each  grade  is  sectioned  according  to  ability,  so  that  the  upper 
section  in  each  grade  comprises  a  group  of  exceptionally  strong  pupils. 
No  attempt  is  made,  however,  to  gain  time  for  these  upper  sections, 
although  a  different  grade  of  work  is  done,  so  that  the  difference  is 
one  of  quality  rather  than  of  quantity .^°  An  exactly  similar  arrange- 
ment obtains  at  Lincoln,  Illinois,  and  in  the  Central  School  at  Cham- 
paign, Illinois,  although  in  the  latter  instance  the  school  is  not  upon 
a  departmental  basis.  At  Lincoln,  it  has  been  definitely  planned  to 
select  from  the  sixth  grade  a  class  with  the  intention  of  doing  three 
years'  work  in  two.^^  In  the  Thornburn  Departmental  School,  of 
Urbana,  Illinois,  which  includes  pupils  of  the  seventh  and  eighth 
grades,  special  classes  are  formed  from  the  upper  sixth  of  the  pupils 
in  each  grade,  and  these  two  classes  prepare  to  enter  the  high  school 
in  a  year  and  a  half,  instead  of  the  customary  two  years.  Up  to  the 
present  time,  two  such  accelerated  classes  have  been  received  into 
the  high  school,  and  their  high-school  work  has  been  fully  up  to  the 
standard  in  every  way. 

2^  Letter  from  Superintendent  Theodore  Saam. 
29  Letter  from  Superintendent  E.  W.  Fellows. 
2°  Letter  from  Superintendent  H.  A.  Perrin. 
3^  Letter  from  Superintendent  William  Hawkes. 


38  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 

An  interesting  method  of  assisting  the  progress  of  bright  children 
is  reported  from  Rockford,  Illinois.  The  Jackson  School  of  that 
city  has  departmental  work  in  the  fifth  to  the  eighth  grade,  inclusive. 
The  staff  includes  a  special  teacher,  who  is  in  charge  of  a  room  to 
which  the  very  bright  pupils  go  for  recitation.  At  the  end  of  March, 
1917,  47  pupils  had  been  assigned  to  this  teacher  since  the  first  of  the 
preceding  February.  These  pupils  recited  once  a  week  in  each  study, 
such  as  language,  geography,  history,  arithmetic,  etc.,  but  they  had 
a  lesson  assigned  daily  for  study  in  each  subject.  On  Monday  the 
teacher  covered  the  ground  of  the  five  days'  language  study.  On 
Tuesday  the  five  days'  work  in  geography  is  gone  over,  and  so  on. 
Besides  this,  the  pupils  did  the  daily  work  of  the  class  above  to  which 
they  had  been  promoted,  thus  doing  a  year's  work  in  a  half  year.^^ 
It  will  be  seen  that,  in  effect,  this  scheme  is  a  form  of  the  special- 
promotion  plan,  modified  to  make  definite  provision  for  regular  class 
recitations  upon  the  work  that  has  been  skipped  on  account  of  pro- 
motion to  the  next  class. 

A  number  of  cities  are  providing  ungraded  or  ''mixed"  rooms, 
in  which  are  placed  such  children  as  are  "misfits,"  either  on  account 
of  inability  to  keep  up  with  the  work  of  their  grade  or  of  ability  to  do 
more  work.  Wausau,  Wisconsin,  has  two  such  rooms,  advantageous- 
ly located,  each  with  an  enrollment  that,  if  possible,  is  not  allowed 
to  exceed  15  pupils.  Three  types  of  pupils  are  transferred  to  these 
rooms:  (1)  especially  strong  pupils  who  desire  to  make  an  addi- 
tional year  or  half  year  in  the  course,  (2)  pupils  who  have  been  absent 
for  any  cause  and  need  to  make  up  the  work  which  they  have  missed, 
and  (3)  pupils  who  are  dull  or  slow  in  any  study  and  need  help  to 
make  up  their  deficiencies  in  that  branch  and  so  keep  up  with  their 
grades.  The  instruction  in  these  rooms  is  all  individual,  and  pupils 
stay  in  them  only  so  long  as  is  necessary  to  accomplish  the  purpose 
for  which  they  came.^  Similar  rooms  are  maintained  in  Durham, 
North  Carolina.^^  Concord,  Massachusetts,  has  nine  "opportunity 
classes,"  as  they  are  called  there,  each  of  which  is  for  both  bright 
children  and  those  who  must  go  more  slowly  than  the  normal.  All 
grades  are  more  or  less  represented  in  them,  according  to  the  demands 

*»  Letter  from  Principal  Mary  C.  Foote. 

"  Letter  from  Superintendent  S.  B.  Foley. 

"  Letter  from  Superintendent  Edwin  D.  Pusey. 


SPECIAL  ROOMS  FOR  GIFTED  PUPILS  39 

and  needs,  and,  since  the  pupils  in  them  are  usually  somewhere 
between  grades  in  their  attainments,  these  classes  might  be  called 
"half-sizes."  It  has  been  found  in  Concord  that  by  this  method 
some  pupils  can  do  two  grades  in  one  year,  and  many  more  can  do 
three  grades  in  two  years.  From  the  sixth  to  the  seventh  grades  only 
a  few  pupils  can  gain  more  than  a  grade,  and  below  the  fourth  few  can 
gain  two  grades  in  one  year.  These  children  are  so  graded  that  the 
teacher  is  able  to  carry  them  along  more  rapidly  and  in  the  course 
of  a  year  may  have  brought  them  to  the  point  where  through  indivi- 
dual work,  under  the  Batavia  System,  the  teacher  of  the  next  higher 
grade  may  pull  them  up  to  her  grade,  so  that  in  these  ways  they  will 
have  gained  a  grade  in  the  course  of  two  years.^^ 

While  we  have  not  much  information  concerning  special  classes 
for  gifted  children  in  Europe,  a  few  cases  have  been  reported.  In 
1899,  Dr.  Sickinger,  superintendent  of  the  schools  of  Mannheim, 
introduced  a  classification  of  the  pupils  of  the  Volksschule  according 
to  their  abilities,  and  organized  a  system  of  special  classes  parallel 
to  the  regular  ones.  These  special  classes,  or  so-called  "furthering 
classes,"  were  designed  to  meet  the  needs  of  those  children  who,  while 
not  to  be  classed  as  mentally  defective,  were  unable  to  do  the  work 
of  the  regular  classes.  Sickinger's  original  scheme  of  classification 
was  a  three-fold  one  which  separated  the  mentally  defective  and  the 
slow  from  the  normal,  but  made  no  special  provision  for  the  excep- 
tionally capable.^^  In  1909,  however,  the  educational  authorities  of 
Mannheim  arranged  for  special  foreign-language  classes,  in  which 
instruction  in  French  should  be  given  to  pupils  of  the  upper  grades 
of  the  Volksschule  who  had  demonstrated  by  their  industry  and  by 
the  quality  of  their  work  that  they  were  fitted  for  the  extra  study. 
In  accordance  with  this  plan,  pupils  of  the  fourth  grade  that  had 
received  good  reports  throughout  their  course  might  be  assigned  to 
a  preliminary  language  course  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  year,  and  at 
the  close  of  this  one-year  preliminary  course,  those  that  had  made 
good  progress  in  their  regular  work,  as  well  as  in  this  special  language 

^  Letter  from  Superintendent  W.  A.  Hall. 

^  Maennel,  B.  The  Auxiliary  Schools  of  Germany.  Translated  by  F.  B.  Dresslar 
as  Untied  States  Bureau  of  Education  Bulletin  1907,  Number  3,  pp.  43-47. 

Rathmann,  C.  G.  The  Mannheim  system  of  school  organization.  Ediicational 
Review,  53:  January,  1917, 55-60. 


40  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 

work,  and  had  been  honorably  mentioned  in  the  matter  of  attainment, 
industry,  and  conduct,  were  admitted  to  the  regular  foreign-language 
classes,  from  which  they  might  be  dropped  at  any  time  if  their  work 
failed  to  come  up  to  the  standard.  The  Mannheim  system  of  school 
organization  was  also  in  use  in  Charlottenburg,  where  the  classifica- 
tion was  carried  a  step  further  than  at  Mannheim,  so  that  the  very 
bright  were  segregated,  instead  of  being  left  in  the  same  division 
with  the  children  of  normal  or  average  ability.'^ 

In  the  Southall  Street  Elementary  School,  Manchester,  England, 
there  has  been  in  use  for  some  time  a  very  effective  combination  of 
flexible  grading  and  special  classes  for  bright  children,  which  deserves 
notice  as  a  plan  that  is  both  practical  and  easy  of  administration, 
and  might  well  be  introduced  into  other  schools.  In  this  school, 
which  enrolls  about  800  pupils,  the  30  brightest  children  coming  up 
from  the  kindergarten  at  the  beginning  of  each  year  are  placed  in  a 
special  class,  known  as  Special  II,  to  do  Grades  I  and  II  in  one  year. 
The  rest  of  the  beginners  are  enrolled  in  three  groups — good,  medium, 
and  weak,  with  chances  for  transfer  upward.  At  the  end  of  the  year, 
the  pupils  in  Special  II  are  promoted  to  the  regular  third  grade,  where 
they  have  a  comparatively  easy  time  for  a  year.  A  few  of  them 
who  are  exceptionally  able,  however,  go  to  Special  IV,  there  to  do 
Grades  III  and  IV  in  the  next  year.  Of  the  pupils  who  do  their  first 
year's  work  in  the  regular  first  grade,  a  few  of  the  best  receive  pro- 
motion into  Special  III,  where  the  work  of  Grades  II  and  III  is  done 
in  one  year.  In  other  words,  whenever  it  is  possible,  it  is  arranged 
that  supernormal  pupils  are  promoted  to  a  special  class  where  they 
will  gain  a  grade  by  doing  two  years'  work  in  one.  The  typical  group 
of  accelerates  begins  its  school  progress  in  Grade  Special  II,  is  pro- 
moted to  Grade  III  and  then  to  Special  V,  where  it  does  the  work  of 
Grades  IV  and  V  in  one  year.  The  promotion  from  Special  V  is  to 
Grade  VI,  which  is  followed  by  Grade  VII;  and,  as  a  result  of  this 
arrangement,  the  seven  years'  work  is  done  in  five.  When  there  are 
not  enough  bright  pupils  to  form  a  special  class,  they  are  allowed  to 
skip  a  grade  and  go  to  the  one  beyond,  receiving,  if  necessary,  special 
help  in  making  up  any  part  of  the  course  that  has  been  missed.  In 
all,  four  methods  of  promotion  are  used:  (1)  promotion  at  the  end 

^  Holmes,  W.  H.    School  Organization  and  the  Individual  ChUdy  pp.  61,  135-137. 


SPECIAL  ROOMS  FOR  GIFTED  CHILDREN  41 

of  the  school  year  by  the  formation  of  a  special  class  to  work  through 
two  grades  in  one  year;  (2)  promotion  at  the  end  of  a  year  by  skipping 
a  grade;  (3)  promotion  after  the  term  examinations;  and  (4)  promo- 
tioti  at  any  time.  Sometimes,  besides  this,  at  the  end  of  the  half 
year,  the  pupils  in  each  of  the  first  four  grades  are  divided  into  two 
sections,  and  the  pupils  in  the  upper  section  go  ahead  as  fast  as 
possible,  in  order  to  get  as  much  of  the  work  of  the  next  grade  done 
as  they  can.^^ 

'8  Shaer,  I.    Special  classes  for  bright  children  in  an  English  elementary  school. 
Journ.  oJEduc.  Psych.,  4:  April,  1913,  209-222. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  EXPERIMENTAL  ROOM  AT  URBANA 

In  September,  1916,  the  General  Education  Board  placed  in  the 
thanks  of  Professor  Guy  M.  Whipple,  then  of  the  Department  of 
Education  of  the  University  of  Illinois,  a  sum  of  money  to  be  ex- 
pended in  the  study  of  certain  problems  connected  with  the  education 
of  gifted  children.  A  part  of  this  fund  was  devoted  to  the  subsidizing 
of  a  special  room  for  bright  children,  which,  through  the  courtesy  of 
the  Board  of  Education  of  the  city  of  Urbana  and  the  cooperation  of 
Superintendent  A.  P.  Johnson,  was  estabUshed  in  the  Leal  School 
of  that  city.  It  was  understood  that  the  pupils  of  this  room  should 
follow  the  regular  course  of  study,  use  the  same  textbooks,  and  be 
held  to  the  same  requirements  as  the  other  pupils  in  the  corresponding 
grades.  It  was  not  the  purpose  of  those  having  the  experiment  in 
charge  to  crowd  the  children  in  an  attempt  to  see  how  much  ground 
they  could  possibly  cover,  but  to  give  them  opportunity  to  work  up 
to  their  natural  pace,  to  keep  them  busy  enough  so  that  they  might 
not  form  habits  of  lazy  and  careless  work,  and  to  adapt  the  instruc- 
tion to  the  distinctive  capabiHties  and  needs  of  the  individual  pupils. 

The  School 

The  Leal  school,  in  which  the  special  room  was  located,  is  the 
largest  elementary  school  in  the  city  of  Urbana.  It  enrolls  some  400 
pupils,  in  12  rooms,  limited  to  the  first  six  grades.  The  teaching 
force  consists  of  eleven  room-teachers  and  a  principal,  whose  time, 
however,  is  practically  all  spent  in  teaching.  The  district  served  by 
the  school  is  a  rather  large  one,  and  includes  most  of  the  University 
residence  district  as  well  as  a  representative  portion  of  the  residence 
district  of  the  city  itself.  The  building  is  not  modern  in  type,  and 
cannot  be  said  to  be  above  the  average  of  school  buildings  in  towns 
of  this  size. 

42 


EXPERIMENTAL  ROOM  A  T  URBAN  A  43 

Physical  Equipment  of  the  Room 
Owing  to  various  delays  in  securing  the  furniture  for  the  room, 
it  did  not  go  into  operation  until  October  2,  1916,  three  weeks  after 
the  other  rooms  had  begun  work.  The  physical  condition  of 
the  room  was  not  better  than  average.  It  was  furnished  with  the 
ordinary  non-adjustable  school  desks,  had  no  more  furniture  or  pictures 
than  the  other  rooms  in  the  building,  and  was  no  better  equipped 
with  books,  maps,  globes,  or  similar  educational  apparatus.  Because 
of  our  desire  to  carry  on  the  experiment  under  average  conditions, 
things  were  left  much  as  they  were,  with  only  a  few  exceptions. 
Since  the  room  was  inadequately  lighted  from  the  north  and  west, 
with  the  north  light  at  the  pupils'  left,  the  Venetian  bUnds  which 
were  at  the  windows  were  removed  completely.  The  walls  and 
ceiling  were  repainted  a  light  buff  to  replace  the  dingy  and  too  absorp- 
tive tones,  and  the  blackboards  were  resurfaced  to  remove  the  gloss. 

The  Teacher 
The  teacher  in  charge  of  the  room  was  chosen  by  the  city  super- 
intendent and  was  serving  her  first  year  in  the  system.  Her  prepara- 
tion was  above  that  of  the  average  grade  teacher,  for  she  was  a  gradu- 
ate of  one  of  the  best  normal  schools  in  the  country,  located  in  a 
western  state,  and  also  a  graduate  of  the  state  university  of  the  same 
state.  Not  including  this  year,  she  had  had  three  years  of  experience 
in  teaching  in  the  middle  and  upper  elementary  grades,  in  addition 
to  the  practice  teaching  which  she  did  in  the  normal  school.  During 
the  month  of  November,  1916,  her  work  was  observed  and  her 
efficiency  rated  by  two  members  of  the  Department  of  Education  of 
the  University  of  Illinois  and  a  prominent  superintendent  of  schools. 
In  each  case  her  teaching  efficiency  was  rated  as  average,  or  a  trifle 
above  average.  In  scholarship,  sincerity,  and  integrity  of  purpose 
she  ranked  high,  but  was  lacking  in  resourcefulness  and  initiative. 
The  chief  hindrances  to  her  work  during  the  year,  considered  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  qualities  needed  in  carrying  on  the  work  of  such  a 
room,  were  not  matters  of  scholarship,  but  of  personaUty,  and  her 
greatest  deficiency  in  this  respect  was  lack  of  that  animation,  enthu- 
siasm, and  initiative  which  would  inspire  children  to  engage  their 
full  powers  in  their  work.  In  addition  to  the  regular  teacher,  the 
special  teachers  of  music  and  of  drawing  worked  in  the  room  at 


44  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  11 

regular  intervals,  just  as  they  did  in  the  other  rooms  of  the  building. 
It  needs  to  be  noted  quite  clearly  that  all  of  the  conditions  of  the 
experiment  which  have  thus  far  been  mentioned  are  average  condi- 
tions. Supervision,  course  of  study,  physical  equipment  of  room 
and  of  building,  instruction — none  of  these  could  be  said  to  be  above 
average.  The  only  really  distinctive  factor  in  our  experiment,  then, 
consisted  in  the  superior  intelligence  of  the  children  who  made  up  the 
enrollment  of  the  room. 

Selection  of  the  Pupils 

The  selection  of  the  children  was  made  by  the  principal  of  the 
school,  in  consultation  with  the  teachers,  upon  the  basis  of  the 
records  made  by  the  children  in  their  school  work,  their  health,  indus- 
try, and  application.  Fifteen  pupils  were  selected  from  all  those  of 
the  school  who  had  at  the  close  of  the  last  year  received  promotion  to 
the  fifth  grade,  and  an  equal  number  from  those  who  were  ready  to 
enter  the  sixth  grade.  One  or  two  children  who  were  selected  did 
hot  accept,  because  of  fear  of  extra  work  or  dislike  of  being  separated 
from  friends  in  other  rooms,  and  others  were  chosen  to  fill  their  places. 
Of  these  others,  one  sixth-grade  boy  was  transferred  from  another 
school.  As  organized,  then,  the  room  consisted  of  30  pupils,  15  in 
the  fifth  grade  and  15  in  the  sixth,  representing  practically  the  top 
fifth  of  the  enrollment  in  each  of  these  two  grades  in  the  Leal  School. 
The  children,  upon  being  assembled  for  the  first  time,  were  simply 
told  that  they  were  to  be  given  an  opportunity  to  see  what  they  could 
do,  not  that  they  were  expected  to  cover  any  definite  amount  of 
work. 

Composition  of  the  Control  Group 

In  addition  to  the  30  5th  and  6th  grade  pupils  in  the  special  room, 
there  were  in  the  Leal  School  57  5th  grade  and  62  6th  grade  pupils. 
These  were  enrolled  in  three  different  rooms,  which  served  as  control 
groups  for  evaluating  the  results  of  the  various  educational  and 
psychological  tests  which  were  used  to  discover  some  of  the  differ- 
ences between  bright  and  ordinary  pupils.  These  rooms  also  made 
possible  a  check  upon  progress  and  attendance.  Forty-three  6th 
grade  pupils  were  enrolled  in  one  room,  which  will  be  hereafter  desig- 
nated as  Room  6G.    A  5th  grade  room  contained  38  pupils  and  will 


EXPERIMENTAL  ROOM  AT  URBAN  A 


45 


be  known  as  Room  5Y.  The  third  room  was  a  mixed  room,  contain- 
ing 19  5th-grade  and  an  equal  number  of  6th  grade  pupils.  It  will 
be  called  Room  5-6F. 

Personal  Data  of  the  Experimental  Group 
The  following  table  displays  the  more  important  personal  facts 
concerning  each  pupil. 

TABLE  I 

Sex,  Age,  and  Parental  Occupation  of  Pupils  of  Experimental  Group 


Age*  in 

Grade      Number 

Occupation  of 
Parent 

VJACVVJ-V/                 J.1   U.XJ.1I^\^X 

Sex 

Years 

Months 

Days 

V.              1 

Girl 

10 

3 

12 

Editor 

2 

Girl 

10 

2 

4 

Jeweler 

3 

Girl 

10 

6 

24 

Faculty,  U.  of  111. 

4 

Boy 

11 

2 

8 

Policeman 

5 

Girl 

10 

9 

19 

Physician 

6 

Girl 

10 

8 

9 

Barber 

7 

Girl 

10 

5 

30 

Clerk 

8 

Boy 

10 

5 

23 

Clergyman 

9 

Girl 

11 

3 

24 

Clerk 

10 

Girl 

10 

0 

1 

Faculty,  U.  of  111. 

11 

Girl 

10 

5 

25 

Seamstress 

12 

Boy 

11 

3 

12 

Painter 

13 

Girl 

10 

3 

7 

Clerk 

14 

Boy 

10 

5 

27 

Banker 

15 

Boy 

11 

0 

8 

Faculty,  U.  of  111. 

VL ,           16 

Boy 

10 

6 

10 

Helper,  Univ.  Farm 

17 

Boy 

12 

4 

15 

Plasterer 

18 

Girl 

11 

10 

11 

Merchant 

19 

Girl 

11 

4 

6 

Druggist 

20 

Boy 

11 

6 

4 

Clerk 

21 

Girl 

12 

5 

11 

Faculty,  U.  of  111. 

22 

Boy 

11 

9 

23 

Laundress 

23 

Girl 

9 

9 

30 

Faculty,  U.  of  111. 

24 

Boy 

11 

9 

16 

Mechanic 

25 

Girl 

11 

7 

12 

Faculty,  U.  of  lU. 

26 

Boy 

10 

9 

17 

Conductor 

27 

Girl 

11 

7 

19 

Faculty,  U.  of  111. 

28 

Girl 

11 

1 

5 

Mail  carrier 

29 

Boy 

11 

3 

7 

Carpenter 

30 

Boy 

12 

4 

9 

Merchant 

*  All  ages  have  been  computed  as  at  December  31,  1916. 

There  are  five  boys  and  ten  girls  in  the  5th,  eight  boys  and  seven 
girls  in  the  6th  grade.  The  median  age  of  the  5th  grade  on  Decem- 
ber 31,  1916,  was  ten  years,  five  months,  and  thirty  days,  or  practical- 
ly ten  and  one-half  years,  as  against  a  median  age  on  the  same  date, 


46 


NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 


for  the  other  57  5th  grade  pupils  in  the  building,  of  ten  years  and 
eight  months — a  difference  of  two  months  in  favor  of  the  experimen- 
tal group.  For  the  6th  grade,  the  median  age  is  eleven  years,  seven 
months,  and  twelve  days,  in  the  experimental  group,  and  twelve 
years  for  the  62  6th-grade  pupils  in  other  rooms — a  difference  of  four 
and  one-half  months,  or  two  and  a  half  months  greater  than  the 
difference  in  the  5th  grade. 

In  order  to  determine  whether  the  experimental  room  contained 
more  than  its  share  of  the  children  of  faculty  members  enrolled  in 
these  grades,  a  rather  arbitrary  grouping  of  the  different  parental 
occupations  and  professions  represented  was  made,  and  the  per- 
centage figured  for  each  group,  first  for  the  total  membership  of  the 
5th  and  6th  grades,  before  the  pupils  of  the  experimental  room  were 
separated  from  the  rest,  and  again  for  the  membership  of  the  special 
room.    The  conditions  are  shown  by  the  following  table. 

TABLE  II 

Percentage  by  Occupations,  Total  and  Experimental  Groups 


Occupations  and  Professions 


Skilled  laborers  and  tradesmen 

Faculty  members 

Clerks,  salesmen  and  solicitors 

Police,    firemen,    mail-carriers,    motormen    and 

conductors 

Farmers  and  dairymen 

Bankers  and  merchants 

Unskilled  laborers 

Laundresses,  seamstresses  and  domestics 

Editors,  clergymen,  lawyers  and  physicians 

Contractors 


Per  cent  for  all 

Per  cent  for 

5th  and  6th 

experimental 

grade  pupils 

group 

combined 

3L91 

26.67 

17.02 

23.33 

11.35 

13.33 

10.64 

10.00 

7.80 

0.00 

6.38 

10.00 

4.96 

0.00 

3.55 

6.67 

3.55 

10.00 

2.84 

0.00 

It  is  here  shown  that  the  children  from  faculty  homes  furnished 
somewhat  more  than  their  share  of  the  experimental  group,  since  17 
per  cent  of  the  total  membership  of  the  two  grades  has  supplied 
233^  per  cent  of  the  enrollment  of  the  special  room.  Again,  if  to 
these  there  are  added  those  children  who  come  from  homes  represent- 
ing the  other  professions,  we  find  that  a  few  more  than  one-fifth  of 
the  total  group  furnish  exactly  one-third  of  the  selected  upper  group. 


EXPERIMENTAL  ROOM  A  T  URBAN  A  47 

While  this  is  not  sufficient  ground  for  generalization,  it  is  true  that 
under  tiie  conditions  of  this  experiment,  children  from  homes  repre- 
senting the  so-called  learned  professions  stand  a  better  chance  of 
high  rank  in  school  success,  as  measured  by  the  ordinary  methods. 

School  History 

The  school  progress  of  most  of  these  children,  prior  to  their 
enrollment  in  the  experimental  room,  had  been  entirely  normal; 
most  of  them  began  school  at  six  years  of  age,  or  thereabouts,  and, 
with  a  few  exceptions,  made  a  school  grade  each  year  after.  Only 
one  case  of  repeating  a  grade  was  reported,  namely,  Number  4,  who 
spent  two  years  in  the  first  grade.  Numbers  16  and  26  skipped  the 
third  grade,  and  Numbers  8  and  23  entered  the  public  schools  in  the 
third  grade,  for  the  former  did  the  work  of  the  first  two  years  at 
home,  and  the  latter  had  attended  a  private  school.  Number  5  did 
the  work  of  the  first  two  grades  in  one  year,  Number  10  spent  only 
one  half-year  in  the  first  grade.  Number  6  lost  half  of  the  second 
year's  work,  because  of  illness,  and  for  that  reason  has  been  in  school 
one-half  year  longer  than  the  normal  number  of  years  for  reaching 
the  fifth  grade;  Number  7  missed  about  half  the  first  year,  for  the 
same  reason,  but  did  not  spend  any  time  in  making  it  up,  and  hence 
was  not  delayed  in  her  progress.  Attention  should  be  called  to  the 
fact  that,  measured  in  terms  of  time  spent  in  school,  but  few  of  these 
children  have  derived  any  advantage  from  the  excellent  character  of 
their  work,  for  in  only  four  or  five  cases  has  the  school  made  any 
provision  whereby  progress  more  rapid  than  that  of  the  average  child 
might  be  made  possible  for  them. 

Mental  Age 

In  order  to  determine  the  degree  of  intelligence  possessed  by  each 
of  the  members  of  the  experimental  group,  early  in  the  year  they 
were  tested  by  Miss  Coy  by  the  Stanford  Revision  of  the  Binet- 
Simon  scale  for  the  Measurement  of  Intelligence.^  The  results  are 
exhibited  in  Table  III. 

^  Terman,  L.  M.    The  Measurement  of  Intelligence. 


48 


NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  TI 


TABLE  III 

1 

Mental  Age,  Advancement,  and  Intelligence  Quotient 

1 

Date  of 

Chrono- 

Mental Age 

Advance- 

InteUi- 

Grade 

No.      Sex 

Examin-'- 

logical  Age* 

ment 

gcnce 

tion 

Yrs.  Mos. 

Yrs.    Mos. 

Yrs. 

Mos. 

Quotient 

V. 

1.  Girl 

Oct.  16 

10          1 

13        11 

3 

10 

138.0 

2.  Girl 

Oct.  12 

10          0 

14          8 

4 

8 

146.6 

3.  Girl 

Sept.  29 

10          3 

11          3 

1 

0 

110.0 

4.  Boy 

Oct.  18 

11          0 

11          2 

2 

101.5 

5.  Girl 

Oct.  16 

10          7 

11          3 

8 

107.0 

6.  Girl 

Oct.    2 

10          5 

13          2 

2 

9 

126.4 

7.  Girl 

Oct.  13 

10          3 

11        10 

1 

7 

115.4 

8.  Boy 

Oct.  17 

10          3 

12          7 

2 

4 

122.7 

9.  Girl 

Oct.  23 

11          1 

12          0 

11 

108.2 

10.  Girl 

Oct.  20 

9        10 

11          7 

1 

9 

117.9 

11.  Girl 

Oct.  13 

10          3 

14          6 

4 

3 

141.4 

12.  Boy 

Oct.  17 

11          1 

13          5 

2 

4 

121.0 

13.  Girl 

Oct.  11 

10          1 

10          3 

2 

101.6 

14.  Boy 

Oct.  24 

10          3 

13          5 

3 

2 

130.9 

15.  Boy 

Oct.    5 

10        10 

11        11 

1 

1 

110.0 

VI. 

16.  Boy 

Oct.    4 

10         4 

13          9 

3 

5 

133.0 

17.  Boy 

Sept.  28 

12          1 

14          9 

2 

8 

122.0 

18.  Girl 

Oct.    6 

11          7 

12          5 

10 

107.0 

19.  Girl 

Oct.    3 

11          2 

13        11 

2 

9 

124.6 

20.  Boy 

Oct.    6 

11          4 

11          9 

5 

103.6 

21.  Girl 

Sept.  29 

12          3 

13          1 

10 

107.0 

22.  Boy 

Oct.    4 

11          7 

12          6 

11 

108.0 

23.  Girl 

Oct.    2 

9         7 

12          9 

3 

2 

133.0 

24.  Boy 

Oct.    9 

11          7 

11          6 

1 

99.3 

25.  Girl 

Sept.  28 

11         4 

12          5 

1 

1 

110.0 

26.  Boy 

Oct.     9 

10         7 

12          7 

2 

0 

118.8 

27.  Girl 

Sept.  28 

11          4 

12        10 

1 

6 

113.0 

28.  Girl 

Oct.    10 

10        10 

12          6 

1 

8 

115.3 

29.  Boy 

Oct.     3 

11         0 

12          2 

1 

2 

110.6 

30.  Boy 

Oct.    10 

12          1 

16          1 

4 

0 

134.4 

*  The  chronological  age  has  in  each  case  been  calculated  to  the  nearest  full  month. 


By  the  intelligence  quotient  (I.Q)  is  meant  the  ratio  between 
the  mental  age  of  the  child,  as  determined  by  the  Binet  scale,  and  the 
chronological  age.  It  is  found  by  dividing  the  mental  age  by  the 
chronological  age.  Terman  classifies  intelligence  quotients  above 
140  as  representing  "near"  genius  or  genius;  those  from  120  to  140  as 
degrees  of  very  superior  intelligence;  from  110  to  120  as  superior 
intelligence;  and  from  90  to  110  as  normal,  or  average  intelligence. 
It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  on  account  of  the  impossibility 


EXPERIMENTAL  ROOM  AT  URBAN  A 


49 


of  drawing  sharp  border-lines  these  classifications  are  only  approxi- 
mate.2  The  following  table  distributes  the  intelligence  quotients 
shown  in  the  table  above  into  these  groups. 

TABLE  IV 

Distribution  by  Intelligence  Groups 

Fifth  Grade  Sixth  Grade  Total 

Normal,  or  average  intelligence 6                         6  12 

Superior  intelligence 2                         4  6 

Very  superior  intelligence 5                          5  10 

Near  genius  or  genius 2                         0  2 

To  put  the  matter  in  another  way,  an  I.  Q.  of  110  is  equaled  or 
excelled  by  20  children  out  of  100;  an  I.  Q.  of  115  by  ten  out  of  100, 
an  I.  Q.  of  125  by  one  out  of  100,  while  only  about  one  child  in  250 
or  300  tests  as  high  as  140.^  The  number  of  children  in  the  experi- 
mental room  who  reached  each  of  these  points  is  shown  in  Table  V. 

TABLE  V 

Number  of  Pupils  Reaching  Higher  Intelligence  Quotients 


I. 

Q.  Reached  or 

Fifth 

Sixth 

Total 

Exceeded 

Grade 

Grade 

110 

10 

10 

20 

115 

8 

7 

15 

120 

7 

5 

12 

125 

5 

3 

8 

130 

4 

3 

7 

140 

2 

0 

2 

Part  of  Total  School  Population 
Normally  Represented 


Upper  20% 
Upper  10% 
Upper  5% 
Upper  3% 
Upper  1% 
Upper  0.3% 


It  has  been  suggested  that  the  intelligence  standard  for  admission 
to  a  special  class  for  gifted  children  be  set  at  a  mental  advancement 
of  two  whole  years,''  which,  at  the  age  of  most  of  the  children  in  this 
class,  would  result  in  an  intelligence  quotient  of  about  120,  which 
Terman  makes  the  dividing  line  between  "superior"  and  "very  super- 
ior" intelligence.     There  are  13  children  in  the  class  who  show  a 


«  Terman,  L.M.   Op.  cit.,  p.  79. 

3  Terman,  L.  M.    Op.  cit.,  pp.  78,  96. 

*  Hoke,  K.  J.  The  Public  Schools  and  the  Abnormal  Child.  Psyclwlogical  Clinic, 
9:  January,  1916,  238-245. 

Goddard,  H.  H.  Two  thousand  normal  chUdren  measured  by  the  Binet  measuring 
scale  of  intelligence.    Pedagogical  Seminary  18:  June,  1911,  232-259. 


50  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  11 

mental  advancement  of  two  years  or  more,  and  12  who  have  an  intelli- 
gence quotient  of  120  or  better  (Table  V).  Of  these  12,  it  is  interest- 
ing to  note  that  four  come  from  the  homes  of  skilled  laborers  and 
tradesmen,  four  are  children  of  bankers  or  merchants,  one  comes 
from  the  home  of  a  faculty  member,  two  from  homes  representing 
other  professions,  and  one  from  the  home  of  a  seamstress.  Seven 
children  of  faculty  members,  in  the  whole  group,  contribute  only 
one  intelligence  quotient  above  120,  although  only  two  of  them  fall 
below  110. 

Criticism  of  the  Method  of  Selection 

The  basis  of  selection  of  the  pupils  of  the  experimental  room  and 
the  manner  in  which  that  selection  was  made  have  been  described 
in  an  earlier  portion  of  the  present  chapter.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  the  room,  as  actually  constituted,  received  the  upper  20  per 
cent  each  of  the  fifth  and  sixth  grades  of  the  Leal  School,  and  that 
the  selection  was  made  entirely  upon  the  opinions  of  the  principal 
and  the  teachers,  whose  judgment,  naturally  enough,  was  based 
largely  upon  the  school  records  of  the  individual  pupils.  It  will  be 
seen,  however,  that  in  our  experimental  class  we  have  a  very  liberal 
selection,  with  a  consequently  wide  range  of  intelligence  quotients. 
Only  12  of  the  30  children  reach  or  exceed  an  I.  Q.  which  entitles 
them  to  be  classed  as  possessing  "very  superior"  intelligence,  and 
ten  of  them  are  of  no  better  than  average,  though  many  of  these 
latter  are  near  the  upper  limit  of  that  classification.  Had  the  pupils 
for  this  room  been  chosen  by  means  of  the  results  of  the  mental  tests, 
therefore,  there  would  have  been  a  much  better  selection,  and  even 
more  could  have  been  accomplished  than  actually  was. 

The  tables  in  the  following  chapters,  which  exhibit  the  results 
of  the  various  educational  and  psychological  tests  that  were  used, 
show  a  comparatively  wide  range  of  ability  in  each  test,  even  in  the 
selected  group.  This  is  owing  chiefly  to  the  fact  that  one  or  two 
individuals,  whose  intelligence  quotients  are  the  lowest  in  the  room, 
are  also  consistently  low  in  the  tests.  A  better  method  of  selection 
would  have  eliminated  these  pupils  and  thus  made  possible  more 
uniform  results.  Our  experience  throughout  the  year  indicated  very 
strongly  that  the  selection  of  pupils  for  a  special  room  for  gifted 
children  should  be  made  by  means  of  psychological  tests,  rather  than 


EXPERIMENTAL  ROOM  A  T  URBAN  A  51 

being  allowed  to  depend  upon  the  opinions  of  teachers  and  principals, 
or  even  upon  the  record  of  the  teachers'  marks  secured  by  the  child 
in  the  various  school  subjects.^ 

Amount  or  Work  Accomplished 

An  important  part  of  the  experiment  consisted  in  keeping  a  close 
comparison  of  the  progress  of  the  special  room  with  that  of  the  other 
rooms  of  the  same  grade.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  special 
room  was  not  established  until  October  2nd,  or  three  weeks  after 
the  work  of  the  school  year  had  begun.  During  those  three  weeks 
the  pupils  who  had  been  selected,  carried  on  their  work  in  the  regular 
rooms  with  the  rest  of  the  class,  and  in  that  way,  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  experimental  work,  some  time  was  lost.  At  the  end  of 
November,  that  is  to  say,  in  eight  weeks,  a  careful  account  was  taken  of 
the  work  which  had  been  done  in  the  different  rooms,  and  it  was  found 
that  the  special  5th  grade  group  had  accomplished  approximately 
50  per  cent  more  work  than  the  regular  5th  grades  had  done  in  arith- 
metic, 100  per  cent  more  in  language,  and  50  per  cent  more  in  geog- 
raphy. The  6th  grade,  in  amount  of  work  done,  had  made  a  gain 
of  approximately  75  per  cent  in  arithmetic  and  66  per  cent  in  lan- 
guage. Besides  this,  both  grades  in  the  room  had  finished  the  half- 
year's  work  in  physiology  prescribed  by  the  course  of  study,  and 
had  begun  upon  the  work  in  history  which  regularly  follows  the 
completion  of  the  work  in  physiology,  as  the  course  is  arranged. 
Final  examinations  in  arithmetic,  set  by  the  city  superintendent  and 
covering  the  work  of  a  whole  school  year  for  each  grade,  i.e.,  those 
regularly  given  in  June,  were  given  to  both  grades  on  February  9, 
1917,  and  the  corresponding  examinations  in  language  were  given 
one  week  later.  The  5  th  grade  took  the  final  examination  in  geog- 
raphy on  February  19.  All  these  examinations  were  under  the 
supervision  of  the  superintendent,  and  the  papers,  after  having 
been  graded  by  the  teacher,  were  sent  to  his  office  for  inspection  and 
approval.  In  each  case  the  results  were  satisfactory,  and  the  classes 
were  allowed  to  go  on  at  once  with  the  work  of  the  next  year  in  the 
respective  branches.  The  Urbana  course  of  study  provides  for 
only  two  months'  work  in  geography  for  the  6th  grade,  beginning 

^  For  an  extended  discussion  of  this  matter,  see  G.  M.  Whipple,  Classes  for  Gifted 
Children,  Bloomington,  111.,  1919. 


52  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 

April  first.  With  this  6th  grade,  however,  the  work  was  begun  after 
the  Christmas  vacation  and  was  completed  by  the  end  of  February, 
at  which  time  the  7th  grade  work  in  the  same  subject  was  undertaken. 
At  the  end  of  the  school  year  both  grades  had  completed  another 
year  of  work,  with  the  exception  of  the  work  in  history,  in  which,  for 
various  reasons,  mainly  because  of  difficulty  in  articulating  the  work 
of  the  Special  Room  with  the  course  of  study  used  in  the  Urbana 
school  system,  as  required  by  the  superintendent,  and  therefore 
beyond  our  control,  they  still  lacked  a  few  weeks'  work.  During 
the  first  week  in  June,  1917,  the  children  of  the  Special  Group  were 
given  the  regular  final  examinations  in  the  subjects  of  the  6th  and 
7th  grades  as  outlined  for  the  other  rooms,  with  the  understanding 
that  if  these  examinations  were  passed,  and  the  deficiencies  in  history 
made  up  during  the  summer  months,  or  in  the  following  year,  they 
would  be  permitted  to  enter  the  grade  ahead  at  the  beginning  of  the 
next  school  year,  in  this  way  making  a  gain  of  one  year.  Nine  pupils 
of  the  Special  Fifth,  and  eight  of  the  Special  Sixth  passed  the  exami- 
nations and  received  certificates  of  promotion.  A  number  of  the 
children  failed  in  the  examination  in  arithmetic,  the  papers  from 
which  were  scored  by  the  superintendent  himself,  and  that  in  a  very 
rigorous  way.  Almost  all  the  members  of  this  latter  group  did 
review  work  in  arithmetic  during  the  summer  and  passed  a  special 
examination  set  for  them  in  September,  thus  gaining  promotion. 
It  should  be  noted,  in  this  connection,  that  the  matter  of  the  pro- 
motion of  the  pupils  of  the  Special  Group  rested  entirely  with  the 
decision  of  the  superintendent.^  In  addition,  it  may  be  said  that 
practically  all  of  those  who  failed  to  receive  promotion  either  in  June 
or  in  September  would  never  had  been  admitted  to  the  Special 
Group  if  the  selection  had  been  made  by  the  use  of  our  psychological 
tests,  rather  than  upon  the  single  basis  of  teachers*  judgments. 

Health 

The  extra  amount  of  work  which  the  pupils  carried  resulted  in 
no  case  in  any  impairment  of  health.  Careful  watch  was  kept  for 
any  symptoms  of  nerve  strain,  or  any  other  indications  of  weakness, 
but  nothing  of  the  sort  was  detected.     Two  children  put  on  eye- 

•  For  a  detailed  account  of  this  phase  of  the  investigation,  see  Whipple,  op.  cit., 
pp.  83-93 


EXPERIMENTAL  ROOM  AT  URBAN  A 


53 


glasses  early  in  the  year,  and  in  consequence  of  advice  given  them 
as  the  result  of  tests  of  vision,  rather  than  because  of  any  extra  strain. 
Careful  inspection  was  made  of  the  children's  teeth  by  a  competent 
dentist,  and  a  copy  of  his  report  transmitted  to  the  parents. 

Attendance 

In  regularity  of  attendance,  the  experimental  room  surpassed 
the  other  rooms  of  the  same  grade  which  were  in  the  building.  Table 
VI  shows  the  per  cent  of  attendance  for  all  rooms  in  the  Leal  School 
enrolling  5th  and  6th  grade  pupils,  by  months  from  October,  1916,  to 
March,  1917,  inclusive.  September,  1916,  is  omitted  for  the  reason 
that  the  special  room  was  not  in  existence  during  that  month. 


TABLE  VI 

Per  Cent  of  Attendance  by  Months 

Oct. 

Nov. 

Dec. 

Jan. 

Feb. 

Mar. 

Average 

Room  5Y 

97.5 
98.3 
98.9 
99.1 

95.5 
96.7 
97.5 
98.7 

96.8 
96.2 
96.3 
99.7 

93.8 
96.5 
96.3 
98.8 

93.1 
94.1 
96.7 
99.0 

95.3 
94.6 
97.6 
99.1 

95.83 

Room  5-6F 

Room  6G 

96.07 
97.19 

Experimental  Room 

99.07 

Atmosphere 

The  'atmosphere'  of  the  room  throughout  the  whole  year  was 
entirely  normal.  Although  it  is  sometimes  urged  as  an  argument 
against  the  establishment  of  special  rooms  for  gifted  children  that 
there  is  danger  of  the  development  of  egotism,  clannishness,  or  similar 
undesirable  characteristics  on  the  part  of  children  placed  in  such 
rooms,  the  pupils  under  observation  did  not  exhibit  any  inordinate 
amount  of  any  such  traits.  They  enjoy  the  opportunity  of  using 
their  powers,  and  such  was  their  industry  and  their  interest  in  their 
work  that  discipline  was  reduced  to  a  minimum,  and  the  teacher 
left  free  to  spend  all  her  energies  in  the  work  of  instruction. 

Summary 
In  summary  of  this  chapter  it  may  be  said  that,  in  so  far  as  the 
conditions  of  the  experiment  may  be  considered  as  typical,  children 
from  the  top  fifth  of  the  5th  and  6th  grades  of  the  elementary 
school,  selected,  in  general,  on  the  basis  of  the  ordinary  tests  of  school 
work,  are  in  median  age  from  two  to  six  months  younger  than  the 


54  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 

children  composing  the  remaining  four-fifths.  They  are  somewhat 
more  likely  to  come  from  the  homes  of  professional  fathers  than  from 
the  homes  of  skilled  or  unskilled  laborers.  But  few  of  them  derive 
any  advantage,  in  terms  of  school  progress,  from  the  excellence  of 
their  work,  although  from  one-third  to  one-half  of  them  are  advanced 
in  mental  age  two  years  beyond  their  chronological  age,  and  possess  a 
degree  of  intelligence  enabling  them  to  be  classed  intellectually  as 
"very  superior."  Children  falling  within  this  latter  group,  which 
includes  practically  the  top  ten  per  cent,  are  able  to  do  approximately 
two  years  of  the  work  outlined  in  the  ordinary  course  of  study  for  the 
middle-  and  lower-grammar  grades  in  one  year,  with  a  degree  of 
excellence  fully  up  to  the  standard,  and  without  any  undue  strain 
or  impairment  of  health.  They  excel  ordinary  children  in  regularity 
of  attendance,  are  not  abnormally  clannish  or  selfish,  are  industrious 
and  cause  practically  no  trouble  in  discipline. 


CHAPTER  IV 

RESULTS  OF  THE  EDUCATIONAL  TESTS 

In  order  to  determine  the  efficiency  in  the  fundamental  branches 
of  the  special  room  as  a  whole,  as  well  as  to  ascertain  the  points  of 
strength  or  weakness  in  each  pupil  individually,  throughout  the 
year  use  was  made  of  the  various  educational  scales  and  tests  for 
ability  in  handwriting,  spelling,  arithmetic,  and  composition;  while 
other  tests,  not  quite  so  closely  connected  with  some  particular 
branch,  were  used  to  test  different  types  of  language  ability.  It  was 
possible,  by  comparing  the  results  of  these  tests  with  the  norms 
established  for  them,  to  determine  what  degree  of  efficiency  the  room 
had  attained.  In  some  instances  these  tests  were  given  to  the  other 
rooms  in  the  building  which  were  cited  in  the  previous  chapter  as 
"control  groups,"^  and  this  made  possible  a  direct  comparison  of  the 
efficiency  of  the  special  room  with  that  of  the  rest  of  the  school. 
We  shall  proceed  at  once  to  set  forth  the  results  of  these  tests  for  the 
various  studies. 

Handwriting 

To  determine  the  quality  of  handwriting,  samples  were  secured 
in  the  experimental  room  on  October  third,  the  second  day  the  room 
was  in  session.  These  samples  were  scored  on  both  the  Ayres^  and 
the  Thorndike  scales^  for  the  measurement  of  ability  in  handwriting, 
by  sixteen  graduate  students  in  education.  Table  VII  shows  the 
median  and  the  average  amalgamated  score  on  each  scale  for  each 
grade.  It  also  shows  the  range  of  the  median  score  for  each  grade 
among  the  sixteen  persons  who  did  the  scoring.  The  samples  were 
scored  for  quality  only;  no  account  was  taken  of  speed. 

1  See  Chapter  III. 

2  Ayres,  L.  P.    A  Scale  for  Measuring  the  Quality  of  Handwriting  of  School  Children. 
^  Thorndike,  E.  L.    A  Scale  for  Handwriting  of  Children  in  Grades  5  to  8, 
Thorndike,  E.  L.    The  measurement  of  the  quality  of  handwriting.     Teachers 

College  Record,  11:  March,  1910,  83-175. 

55 


56 


NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  U 
TABLE  VII 


Quality  of  Handwriting  Prodticed  by  Pupils  of  Special  Room,  October  3,  1916.    Ayres 
and  Thorndike  Scales,  16  Judges 


FIFTH    GRADE 

SIXTH    GRADE 

Thorndike 

Ayres 

Thorndike 

Ayres 

Median 

9.8 
10.0 

48.6 
48.6 

10.4 
10.5 

49  5 

Average 

50.8 

Median  Range. . . 

8.5-11.5 

36.8-61.8 

7.6-12.9 

29  7-71  5 

Starch's  standard  scores  (Table  VIII),  are  based  on  over  6,000 
pupils  in  28  schools,  and  apply  to  the  ends  of  the  respective  years.* 

TABLE  VIII 
Quality  of  Handwriting.    Standard  Scores  for  End  of  Each  Grade,  Ayres  and  Thorndike 

Scales  (Starch) 


GRADES 


Quality  (Thorndike) 
Quality  (Ayres) .... 


4 

5 

6 

7 

8.7 

9.3 

9.8 

10.4 

37 

43 

53 

57 

10.9 


A  comparison  of  Tables  VII  and  VIII  shows  that,  taking  the 
median  scores  on  the  Thorndike  scale,  the  fifth  grade  has  attained  a 
quality  equal  to  the  standard  score  at  the  end  of  the  sixth  grade, 
while  the  sixth  grade  has  reached  the  ability  to  be  expected  at  the  end 
of  the  seventh  grade.  Since  the  samples  were  taken  at  the  beginning 
of  the  year,  or  only  three  weeks  after  the  beginning,  to  be  exact,  the 
scores  must  be  considered  as  representing  the  ability  possessed  by 
these  pupils  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  grades.  In  other 
words,  they  must  be  compared  not  with  the  fifth-grade  and  sixth- 
grade  scores,  but  with  those  of  a  year  earlier.  Consequently,  accept- 
ing Starch's  scores  as  the  true  norms,  and  considering  the  judging  as 
efficient,  on  the  basis  of  the  Thorndike  scale  the  median  score  of 
each  grade  is  two  years  ahead  of  what  it  might  be  expected  to  be. 
The  same  statement  is  true  when  we  use  the  average  instead  of  the 
median,  for  in  both  grades  the  average  is  slightly  the  higher  of  the 
two  measures. 


*  Starch,  D.    Educational  Measurements,  pp.  82-83. 


RESULTS  OF  THE  EDUCATIONAL  TESTS 


57 


With  the  Ayres  scale,  the  results  are  slightly  different.  The 
average  score  for  the  fifth  grade  stands  just  a  trifle  above  the  mid- 
point between  the  standard  scores  at  the  ends  of  the  fifth  and  sixth 
grades.  If  we  could  assume  that  the  difference  between  the  standard 
scores  for  these  grades  represented  ten  equal  steps  on  the  scale,  then 
our  fifth-grade  group  would  fall  at  a  point  representing  about  the 
middle  of  the  sixth  grade,  with  the  sixth-grade  group  slightly  above 
it.  Remembering  again  that  our  groups  are  at  the  beginning  of  the 
year,  this  calculation  would  show  the  fifth-grade  group  advanced 
one  and  one-half  years  in  average  score,  and  the  sixth-grade  group 
advanced  one-half  year.  Without  going  into  the  argument  as  to  the 
relative  merits  of  these  two  scales,  it  seems  safe  to  assume  that  the 
experimental  group,  in  terms  of  average  score,  is  advanced  at  least 
one  year  in  average  quality  of  handwriting. 

Spelling 

For  testing  ability  in  spelling,  three  of  the  lists  in  Ayres's  scale  for 
Spelling^  were  used;  List  N.  given  on  October  2,  List  R,  given  October 
20,  and  List  U,  given  October  30.  Table  IX  exhibits  the  average,  the 
median,  and  the  range  of  the  percentage  of  words  of  each  list  spelled 
correctly  by  each  of  the  two  grades. 

TABLE  IX 

Percentage  of  Words  Spelled  Correctly.     Lists  N,  R,  U,  Ayres^  Spelling  Scale 


List 

Grade 

Median 

Average 

Range 

N 

5 
6 

5 
6 

5 
6 

92.00 
97.52 

80.80 
93.03 

48.53 
75.00 

91.52 
97.27 

73.21 
91.43 

50.00 
75.29 

70  13-98  70 

R 

92.21-100.0 
25  00-98  21 

u 

64.29-98.21 
9  67-76  47 

29.41-97.06 

In  Table  X  we  have  the  standard  percentages  for  each  list,  by 
grades,  from  data  furnished  by  Ayres. 


Ayres,  L.  P.    A  Measuring  Scale  for  Ability  in  Spelling. 


58 


NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  H 


TABLE  X 

Standard  Percentages  of  Words  Spelled  Correctly  by  Grades ^  Lists  N,  R,  U,  Ayres* 
Spelling  Scale  (After  Ayres) 


Grade 

ListN 

List  R 

ListU 

4 

77-81 

87-90 

94-95 

98 

100 

46^54 
63-69 
77-81 
87-90 
94^5 

5 

6 

55-62 

7 

70-76 

8 

82-86 

Accepting  the  median  as  the  truer  measure  of  the  central  tendency, 
which  it  probably  is  in  this  case  (although  the  difiFerence  between 
median  and  average  assumes  importance  only  with  List  R,  especially 
in  the  fifth  grade),  we  have,  by  combining  Tables  IX  and  X,  a  table 
which  shows  us  the  grade  of  spelling  ability  reached  by  the  median 
score  and  range  of  each  grade. 

TABLE  XI 

Grade  of  Spelling  Ability  Reached  or  Exceeded  by  Median  and  Extreme  Scores  of  Each 
Grade  in  Experimental  Room.    Lists  N,  R,  U,  Ayres'  Spelling  Scale 


Grade 

Grade 

Reached  by 

Median  Score 

Grades  Reached  by 
Extreme  Scores 

List 

Lowest 

Highest 

N 

5 
6 

5 
6 

5 
6 

5.5 
7.0 

6.00 

7.75 

* 
7 

3 
5 

3 
5 

• 

7 

R " 

8 
8 

U 

8 
6 

8 

*  No  standards  for  corresponding  scores  given  in  this  list. 


It  will  be  seen,  upon  examination  of  Table  XI,  that  each  of  the 
grades  in  the  special  room  had  reached  a  degree  of  spelling  ability 
approximately  equal  to  that  of  the  grade  above  it.  The  difference  is 
more  marked  than  it  appears  to  be,  when  we  take  into  consideration 
the  fact  that  these  lists  were  given  at  the  beginning  of  the  year,  and 
it  is,  therefore,  a  very  conservative  estimate  to  say  that  the  selected 
pupils  are  as  a  group  one  year  advanced  in  spelling  ability. 


RESULTS  OF  THE  EDUCA TIONAL  TESTS  59 

With  the  idea  that  a  more  rigorous  test  of  spelling  than  the  Ayres 
scale  should  be  employed  to  obtain  valid  results,  the  superintendent  of 
schools,  during  the  first  week  in  April,  1917,  gave  Lists  Three  and 
Four  of  Starch's  tests  in  spelling^  to  all  the  5th  and  6th-grade  pupils 
in  the  building.  The  average  percentage  of  words  spelled  correctly, 
by  grades  and  rooms,  was  as  shown  in  Table  XII. 

TABLE  XII 

Percentage  of  Words  Spelled  Correctly  by  Fifth  and  Sixth  Grade  Pupils.    Starch's 
Spelling  Tests,  Lists  III  and  IV 
Room  and 
Grade  *  Per  Cent 

5F 68.13 

5Y 61.50 

5  Exp 71.30 

6F 69.68 

6G '.....  72.02 

6  Exp 79.05 

*  It  will  be  noted  that  this  table  includes  Rooms  5-6  F,  5  Y,  and  6  G,  which  have 
already  been  described  as  forming  a  control  group.     See  Chapter  III. 

Starch  gives  as  standards  for  each  grade  the  percentages  indicated 

in  Table  XIII. 

TABLE  XIII 

Standard  Scores.    Starch's  Spelling  Test 
Grades  V        VI       VII     VIII 

Percentage  of  Words  Correct 61        71        78        85 

By  comparing  our  results  with  the  standard  scores,  we  find  that  the 
experimental  fifth  grade,  which  at  the  time  of  the  test,  had  really 
become  a  sixth  grade  in  respect  to  the  work  it  was  doing,  was  up  to 
the  6th-grade  standard  in  spelling  ability.  Likewise,  the  special 
6th  grade,  then  virtually  doing  7th-grade  work,  was  up  to  the  stand- 
ard for  that  grade.  Of  the  control  groups,  all  were  up  to  grade,  or 
better,  with  the  exception  of  the  class  designated  as  6  F,  which  was  a 
little  below  the  standard  for  its  grade.  The  results  of  the  Starch 
tests,  then,  corroborated  those  obtained  earlier  in  the  year  with  the 
Ayres  test  and  confirmed  the  assertion  of  the  investigators  that  the 
selected  pupils,  were,  as  a  group,  distinctly  superior  in  ability  to  spell. 

Arithmetic 
Several  different  methods  of  testing  arithmetical  abilities  were 
used  during  the  year.     To  determine  efficiency  in  the  four  funda- 

"  Starch,  D.    Educational  Measurements^  pp.  88-98. 


60 


NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 


mentals,  the  Woody  Arithmetic  Scales,  Series  A,  were  used,^  This 
series  consists  of  a  set  of  four  graded  scales,  one  for  each  of  the  funda- 
mental operations.  They  were  given  to  the  pupils  of  the  experi- 
mental room  on  the  dates  indicated  in  Table  XIV,  in  the  manner 
prescribed  by  their  author,  and  the  class  score  in  each  of  the  opera- 
tions was  calculated  according  to  his  directions.  This  score  represents 
the  degree  of  difficulty  on  the  scale  of  that  problem  which  could  be 
solved  with  absolute  accuracy  by  just  50  per  cent  of  the  class. 


TABLE  XIV 
Class  Scores,  Experimental  Room,  Woody  Arithmetic  Scales,  Series  A 

Fifth  Grade 

Sixth  Grade 

Addition 

Nov.    7 
Nov.  10 
Nov.  13 
Nov.  14 

8.18 
6.91 
6.37 
6.14 

8.39 

Subtraction 

7.55 

Multiplication 

7.39 

Division 

7.34 

Woody  gives  the  figures  shown  in  Table  XV  as  the  tentative  stand- 
ards of  achievement  in  these  scales,  when  the  tests  are  given  during 
the  first  part  of  the  school  year.  They  are,  then,  directly  comparable 
with  our  scores. 

TABLE  XV 
Tentative  Standards  of  Achievement,  Woody  Arithmetic  Scales,  Series  A 


Grade 

Addition 

Subtraction 

Multiplicat'n 

Division 

V                              .    . 

6.99 
7.95 
8.65 
9.01 

5.47 
6.46 
7.31 
7.64 

5.53 
6.72 
7.26 
7.93 

4  94 

VI     

5  87 

VII  

6.59 

VIII 

7.16 

Comparing  our  class  scores  with  these  tentative  standards,  we 
find  that  our  fifth  grade  excels  the  6th-grade  standard  in  addition, 
subtraction,  and  division,  and  almost  reaches  it  in  multipHcation; 
while  our  sixth  grade,  although  not  quite  reaching  the  7th-grade 
standard  in  addition,  goes  beyond  it  in  subtraction  and  multiplication, 
and  excels  the  8th-grade  standard  in  division. 

As  the  Woody  scales  were  originally  published,  they  consisted 
of  two  series  of  four  scales  each,  so  that  each  scale  tested  ability  in 
only  one  of  the  fundamentals.  A  modification  of  them  has  since 
been  published,  consisting  of  two  sheets  of  problems,  representing 

^  Woody,  C.  Measurements  of  Some  Achievements  in  Arithmetic.  Teachers  College, 
Columbia  University  Contributions  to  Education,  No.  80,  pp.  3-22. 


RESULTS  OF  THE  EDUCATIONAL  TESTS 


61 


all  four  of  the  fundamental  operations  upon  one  scale. ^  Since  norms 
for  the  scales  in  this  form  have  not  yet  been  published,  we  gave  them 
not  only  to  the  pupils  of  the  experimental  room,  but  also  to  those 
other  rooms  of  the  same  grade  in  the  building  that  afforded  the  con- 
trol group  already  described.  Scale  I  was  given  in  all  the  rooms  on 
February  1.  Scale  II  was  given  to  the  control  rooms  on  February  9, 
and  to  the  experimental  room  on  February  12.  The  results  have 
been  scored  in  two  ways:  (1)  by  finding  the  number  of  problems 
correctly  solved  within  the  time-limit  of  20  minutes,  and  (2)  by  com- 
puting the  time  in  seconds  required  for  one  correct  solution.  Tables 
XVI-XIX  show  these  scores  for  each  scale. 


TABLE  XVI 

Woody-McCall  Arithmetic  Scales,  Mixed  Fundamentals,  B  I.     Number  Correct  Solutions 

in  Twenty  Minutes 


NUMBER  OF  PUPILS 

Number 

Fifth  Grade 

Sixth  Grade 

Correct 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

14 

1 
0 
0 
1 

2 
3 
2 
3 
5 
3 

13 
8 
5 
1 

x2 
2 
0 
0 
0 
0 

0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
1 
0 

1 

0 
4 
2 
0 
4 
0 
2 
0 
0 
0 



0 
0 
0 
1 
0 
1 
1 
2 
2 
6 
8 
4 
4 
7 
7 
6 
4 
2 
0 
1 

0 

15 

0 

16 

0 

17 

0 

18       

0 

19       

0 

20  

0 

21 

0 

22 

0 

23 

0 

24 

1 

25       

1 

26 

2 

27   

1 

28  

3 

29  

0 

30 

3 

31 

1 

32           .       ... 

3 

zz      

0 

Sum 

24.8= 
23.9! 
14-3( 

51 

5         24.46 
5         23.31 
)         14-29 

14 

26.25 
26.34 
21-30 

25.84 
25.09 
17-33 

56 

26.25 
24.10 
17-33 

15 

Group : 
Median 

28  84 

Average     .    . 

28  60 

Range          . .    . 

24-32 

8  Woody-McCall  Arithmetic  Scales,  Mixed  Fundamentals,  Series  B,  I  and  II. 


62 


NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  TI 


TABLE  XVII 

Woody-McCaU  ArilhmeUc  Scales,  Mixed  Fundamentals^  B  I. 

Correct  Solution 


Time  Required  for  One 


NUMBER  OF  PUPILS 

Time  in 
Seconds 

Fifth  Grade 

Sixth  Grade 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

84-82 

1 
0 
0 
0 

1 
1 
1 

2 
3 
6 
3 
13 
11 
5 
2 
2 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 

0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
1 
0 
0 
3 
4 
1 
0 
2 
1 
2 
0 
0 

0 
0 
0 
0 
1 
0 
0 
0 
2 
3 
4 
9 
7 

14 
9 
3 
2 
2 
0 
0 
0 

0 

81-79 

0 

78-76 

0 

75-73 

0 

72-70 

0 

69-67 

0 

66-64 

0 

63-61 

0 

60-58 

0 

57-58 

0 

54-52 

0 

51-49 

0 

48-46 

1 

45-43 

0 

42-40.. 

39-37 

1 

2 

36-34 

0 

33-31 

3 

30-28 

4 

27-25 

2 

24-22 

2 

Sum 

48.42 
49  .rs 

51 

50.00 

51.60 

83.6-35.2 

14 

43.25 

41.11 

57.2-30.2 

43.50 

43.00 

70.6-23.3 

56 

44.43 

46.03 

70.6-31.9 

15 

Group: 
Median 

30  25 

Average 

31.70 

Range 

83 

6-3 

0.2 

48.0-2.33 

RESULTS  OF  THE  EDUCATIONAL  TESTS 


63 


TABLE  XVIII 

Woody-McCall  Arithmetic  Scales,  Mixed  Fundamentals,  B  II. 
Solutions  in  Twenty  Minutes 


Number  Correct 


NUMBER  OF  PUPILS 

Number 
Correct 

Fifth  Grade 

Sixth  Grade 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

13 

3 
0 
0 
0 
1 
2 
0 
1 
2 
4 
6 
10 
8' 
6 
4 
1 
5 
0 
0 
0 
0 

0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
2 
1 
2 
2 
2 
3 
1 
2 
0 
0 

0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
4 
3 
3 
7 
3 
7 
7 
5 
1 
4 
6 
5 
2 

0 

14  

0 

15 

0 

16 

0 

17 

0 

18 

0 

19 

0 

20 

0 

21 

0 

22 

0 

23 

0 

24 

0 

25 

1 

26 

0 

27 

3 

28 

3 

29  .    .    . 

1 

30 

2 

31 

2 

32 

1 

33 

2 

Sum 

25.39 

24.57 
13-31 

53 

24.75 
23.71 
13-39 

15 

28.25 
27.60 
24-31 

27.85 
27.15 
21-33 

57 

27.28 
26.59 
21-33 

15 

Group: 
Median 

29  50 

Average 

29  26 

Range 

25-33 

64 


NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 


TABLE  XIX 

Woody-McCall  Arithmetic  Scales,  Mixed  Fundamentals,  B  II. 

Correct  Solution 


Time  Required  for  One 


NUMBER  OF  PUPILS 

Time  in 
Seconds 

Fifth  Grade 

Sixth  Grade 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

93-91 

90-88     

..... 

2 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
1 
1 
0 
0 

1 

1 

3 
1 
3 
7 
6 
5 
2 
5 
4 
6 
5 
0 
0 
0 
0 

0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
2 
0 
3 
1 
5 
2 
1 
1 
0 
0 

0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 

I 

0 
0 
0 
2 
2 
3 
1 
6 
3 
6 
4 
11 
5 
8 
5 
1 
0 
0 

0 
0 

87-85  

0 

84-82 

0 

81-79 

0 

78-76 

0 

75-73     

0 

72-70 

0 

69-67 

0 

66-64 

0 

63-61 

0 

60-58     

0 

57-55  

0 

54-52 

0 

51-49 

0 

48-46 

0 

45-43 

0 

42-40 

0 

39-37 

0 

36-34 

1 

33-31     

1 

30-28 

0 

27-25 

4 

24-22 

4 

21-19            

4 

18-16 

0 

15-13 

1 

Sum 

39.00 

40.69 

92.3-20.4 

53 

42.20 

43.50 

92.3-24.8 

15 

29.25 

30.70 

40-20.4 

31.40 

34.16 

54.5-14.5 

57 

33.00 

35.37 

54.5-20.6 

15 

Group: 
Median 

22.33 

Average 

23.80 

Range 

35.2-14.5 

An  examination  of  these  tables  reveals  a  marked  superiority  of 
the  pupils  of  the  special  room  over  those  of  the  same  grades  in  the 
regular  rooms.  On  Scale  I,  the  median  score  for  number  of  correct 
solutions  in  20  minutes  is,  for  the  special  fifth  grade,  almost  two 
problems  better  than  the  median  for  the  5th-grade  control  group, 
and  the  difference  is  over  two  problems  in  case  of  the  two  6th-grade 
groups.  On  Scale  II,  the  special  fifth  grade  exceeds  its  control  group 
in  median  score  by  three  and  one-half  problems,  and  the  correspond- 


RESULTS  OF  THE  EDUCA  TIONAL  TESTS  65 

ing  difference  in  favor  of  the  special  6th  grade  is  practically  two  and 
one-fourth  problems.  If  the  averages  are  taken  instead  of  the 
medians,  all  these  differences  are  materially  increased. 

In  the  score  by  time  required  for  one  correct  solution,  Scale  I, 
the  special  5th-grade's  median  time  is  shorter  by  6.75  seconds  than 
that  of  its  control  group,  and  the  special  6th  grade  is  faster  than  its 
control  group  by  over  14  seconds.  For  Scale  II,  the  corresponding 
differences  are  13  seconds  (nearly)  and  10.66  seconds.  For  both 
scales,  and  by  both  methods  of  scoring,  in  every  case  the  median  score 
of  the  special  5th-grade  group  reaches  or  exceeds  the  median  score  of 
the  6th-grade  control  group,  and  in  every  case  but  one  (Table  XVII) 
it  exceeds  that  of  the  total  6th-grade  group. 

Bonser's  tests  for  mathematical  judgment^  were  given  to  the 
different  rooms  early  in  March.  These  consist  of  two  sets  of  five 
two-step  problems,  stated  in  the  usual  textbook  form  (Test  I,  A  and 
B),  and  two  sets  of  five  problems  of  the  same  difficulty  as  the  preced- 
ing, so  far  as  the  processes  which  are  involved  are  concerned,  but 
stated  in  a  less  familiar  way  (Test  II,  A  and  B).  Bonser  says  that 
Tests  I  and  II  test  mathematical  judgment,  or,  in  general,  that  form 
of  deductive  reasoning  of  the  usual  scientific  type,  involving  data, 
principles,  and  inferences.  In  giving  them,  when  the  first  pupil  to 
finish  had  completed  his  work,  all  turned  the  papers  face  downward, 
and  they  were  collected.  They  were  given  first  in  the  experimental 
room,  and  the  time-limit  for  each  grade  in  the  control  room  was 
fixed  at  the  number  of  seconds  it  took  the  first  child  in  that  grade  in 
the  special  room  to  finish.  This  made  the  time  in  the  fifth  grade  for 
List  I  A,  108  seconds;  for  List  I  B,  94  seconds;  for  List  II  A,  107 
seconds;  and  for  List  II  B,  64  seconds.  The  corresponding  time- 
limits  in  the  sixth  grade  were  103,  82,  73,  and  64  seconds,  respectively. 
In  scoring  the  papers,  Bonser's  directions  were  followed,  so  that  a 
grade  of  2  was  given  for  each  correct  solution  of  a  problem  in  arith- 
metic. If  one  part  of  a  two-step  problem  was  right,  and  the  other 
not,  a  grade  of  1  was  given.  No  deductions  were  made  for  inac- 
curacies in  operations.  In  the  accompanying  table  the  scores  of  the 
four  different  lists  have  been  combined,  by  adding,  into  one  score  for  all. 

9  Bonser,  F.  G.  The  Reasoning  Ability  of  Children  of  the  Fourth,  Fifth,  and  Sixth 
School  Grades.  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University  Contributions  to  Education, 
No.  37,  pp.  2, 10, 14, 16. 


66 


NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 


Bonser^s 

TABLE  XX 

Reasoning  Tests  I  and  II.     {Mathematical  Judgment) 

NUMBER  or  PUPILS 

Fifth  Grade 

( 

sixth  Grade 

Score 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

0 

5 
7 
6 

0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 

0 
0 
2 
0 
2 
2 
1 
1 
1 
3 
2 
0 
0 
0 
0 
1 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 

3 
7 

10 
6 
3 

10 
2 
5 
2 
4 
2 
1 
5 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 

0 

1-2 

0 

3-4 

0 

5-6 

0 

7-8 

2 

9-10 

1 

11-12 

1 

13-14 

0 

15-16 

2 

17-18 

1 

19-20 

0 

21-22 

1 

23-24 

2 

25-26 

2 

27-28 

2 

29-30 

0 

31-32 

0 

33-34 

0 

35-36 . 

0 

37-38 

0 

39-40 

1 

Sum 

8.25 

-    9.19 

0-30 

47 

6.7 
7.7 
0-25 

15 

14.5 
13.89 
4-30 

10.59 

11.88 

0-39 

60 

10.15 
9.78 
0-24 

15 

Group: 
Median 

22.50 

Average 

20.27 

Range 

8-39 

Here  again,  as  with  the  tests  in  fundamentals,  the  selected  group 
is  far  superior  to  the  control  group,  and  it  is  likewise  again  true  that 
the  median  and  average  score  for  the  special  5th  grade  exceed  the 
median  and  average  of  the  whole  group  of  6th-grade  pupils,  when 
those  in  the  special  room  are  not  treated  separately. 


Language 

The  first  of  the  several  tests  of  language  ability  which  were  used 
was  Winch's  test  for  the  invention  of  stories.  This  test  is  fully 
described  in  Whipple's  Manual  (Part  II,  p.  269),  and  may  be  re- 
garded as  putting  a  premium  upon  literary  ability,  or  constructive 
imagination  in  the  field  of  words.    In  giving  it,  there  was  presented 


RESULTS  OF  THE  EDUCATIONAL  TESTS 


67 


to  each  subject  a  sheet  of  paper  at  the  top  of  which  were  printed  ten 
words,  with  the  instruction  to  write  a  story  in  which  each  of  these  ten 
words  should  be  used.  No  time-Hmit  was  imposed.  This  test  was 
given  only  to  the  special  room,  and  was  given  twice.  On  October  31, 
the  following  list  of  words  was  used:  orphan,  garden,  hungry,  station, 
parents,  clothing,  visitor,  cottage,  train,  country;  on  November  3  the 
test  was  repeated,  with  the  following  words:  snowstorm,  children, 
ticket,  clock,  dog,  screams,  church,  basket,  river,  ice.  The  stories  which 
the  pupils  wrote  v/ere  graded  by  17  graduate  students  in  education, 
using  the  Hillegas-Thorndike  scale  for  the  measurement  of  quality  in 
English  composition,^^  with  the  results  which  are  shown  in  Table  XXI. 


TABLE  XXI 

Quality  of  Composition  (16  Judges) 

"Orphan" 
List 

"Snowstorm" 
List 

fMedian 

37.8 

38.02 

27.7-47.6 

47.2 

47.8 

33.7-63.0 

37.7 

Fifth  Grade  <  Average 

39.42 

I  Range 

28.4-49.1 

fMedian 

45  6 

Sixth  Grade<  Average 

44  1 

Range 

28.6-62.5 

Starch^^  publishes  standards  for  the  Hillegas-Thorndike  scale, 
derived  from  the  ratings  of  compositions  written  by  over  5,000  pupils, 
including  the  reports  of  the  Butte,  Montana,  and  Salt  Lake  City, 
Utah,  surveys.  Trabue,  as  a  result  of  his  investigations  of  composi- 
tion tests  and  measurements  in  a  number  of  typical  school  systems, 
including  those  mentioned  above,  has  proposed  tentative  standard 
medians,  showing  the  quality  of  compositions  to  be  expected  from  at 
least  half  of  a  normal  class  at  the  end  of  any  given  school  year.^^ 
These  proposed  standards  are  higher  than  the  majority  of  the  schools 
in  Trabue's  list  have  actually  achieved,  although  at  each  grade  at 
least  one  school  has  excelled  the  standard.  Both  Starch's  and 
Trabue's  standards  are  given  in  Table  XXII. 

^°  Thorndike,  E.  L.  Preliminary  Extension  of  the  Hillegas  Scale  for  the  Measure- 
ment of  Quality  in  English  Composition  by  Yoking  People. 

^^  Starch,  D.    Educational  Measurements,  p.  145. 

^2  Trabue,  M.  R.  Supplementing  the  Hillegas  Scale.  Teachers  College  Record, 
18:  51-84. 


68 


NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 


TABLE  XXII 

Standard  Scores  for  the  Hillegas-Thorndike  Scale  {After 

Starch  and  Trabue) 

Grades 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

Standards  (Starch) 

26 
35 

31 
40 

36 
45 

41 
50 

46 

Standards  (Trabue)       

ss 

By  comparing  our  results  with  these  scores,  it  will  be  seen  that  our 
special  5th-grade  pupils  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  had  reached  a 
standard  of  quality  in  English  composition  almost  equal  to  Starch's 
7th-grade  standard,  and  that  the  6th-grade,  if  we  take  the  mean  of  the 
two  tests,  had  8th-grade  ability  at  that  time.  By  Trabue's  standards, 
which  are  admittedly  somewhat  higher  than  those  found  in  practice, 
the  5th  grade  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  had  practically  that  degree 
of  ability  to  be  expected  from  them  at  the  close  of  the  year,  and  the 
same  thing  is  true  of  the  sixth  grade. 

It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  in  giving  a  list  of  ten 
words  which  must  be  used  in  these  stories,  a  factor  was  introduced 
which  would  not  have  to  be  reckoned  with  in  rating  compositions 
written  under  ordinary  circumstances.  Just  what  the  effect  of  this 
factor  would  be,  is  difficult  to  determine;  it  is  a  question  whether 
compositions  thus  written  would  grade  higher  or  lower  on  the  scale 
than  those  written  under  a  set  subject.  I  am  inclined  to  think, 
however,  that  furnishing  the  list  of  words  tended  to  raise  the  quality 
of  the  composition,  and  that,  therefore,  our  scores  are  just  a  little  too 
high  to  be  a  fair  measure  of  the  ability  of  these  pupils  in  composition. 
The  words  that  were  given  in  the  test  probably  suggested  a  plot  and 
made  for  a  coherent  development  that  otherwise  might  not  have 
been  obtained.  On  the  other  hand,  there  was  the  disadvantage  of 
loss  of  freedom  and  initiative,  with  the  consequent  creation  of  a 
somewhat  artificial  situation. 


Trabue's  Language  Scales 
In  Trabue's  Completion-Test  Language  Scales,  we  have  a  test  for 
language  ability  of  a  different  type.  These  scales  represent  varieties 
of  the  well-known  completion  method,  or  completion  tests,  which 
consist  of  a  series  of  sentences  in  which  certain  words  are  eUded.  The 
task  is  to  fill  each  blank  with  a  single  word  that  makes  sense.  There 
is  evidence  that  there  is  a  rather  high  positive  correlation  between 


RESULTS  OF  THEj^DUCATlONAL  TESTS 


69 


ability  in  Trabue's  tests  and  ability  in  other  tests  of  language  and 
also  general  intelligence.  Scales  B  and  C  of  these  tests  were  given  to 
the  special  room  in  the  latter  part  of  October,  and  to  the  control 
rooms  about  the  middle  of  December.  They  were  given  and  scored 
in  exact  accordance  with  Trabue's  directions. ^^  For  our  purposes,  the 
scores  for  the  two  tests  have  been  combined,  by  adding,  into  a  single 
score.    The  scores  thus  obtained  are  displayed  in  Table  XXIII. 

TABLE  X±III 

Combined  Scores,  Trahue  Language  Scales  B  and  C 


NUMBER  OF  PUPILS 

Fifth  Grade 

Sixth  Orade 

Score 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

12     





2 
1 
0 
0 
2 
2 
0 
3 
2 
3 
6 
7 
2 
8 
2 
0 
3 
0 
1 
0 
2 
0 
0 
0 
0 

0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
1 
1 
3 
0 
0 
3 
2 
1 
2 
0 
0 
•    1 
1 
0 
0 
0 



1 
0 
0 
2 
1 
4 
2 
4 
7 
6 
5 
2 
2 
6 
6 
3 
2 
3 
1 
1 
0 
0 
0 
0 

0 

13   

0 

14   

0 

15  

0 

16 

0 

17 

0 

18 

0 

19       

0 

20     

0 

21     

1 

22     

0 

23  

1 

24  

1 

25 

1 

26 

1 

27 

5 

28                  .       .    . 

0 

29       

1 

30       

1 

31     

0 

32     

0 

33  

0 

34 

1 

35 

1 

36 

1 

Sum 

23.80 
23.25 
12-33 

46 

22.48 
22.39 
12-32 

15 

26.70 
26.30 
21-33 

24.83 
24.32 
13-36 

58 

23.39 
23.50 
13-32 

15 

Group : 
Median 

27.50 

Average 

27.90 

Range 

21-36 

"  Trabue,  M.  R.    Completion-Test  Language  Scales.    Teachers  College,  Columbia 
University  Contributions  to  Education,  No.  77,  especially  pp.  19-22,  78-80,  117-118. 


70 


NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  11 


In  this  test,  again,  the  median  and  average  scores  attained  by  the 
5th-grade  pupils  in  the  special  room  are  above  those  for  the  6th 
grade  of  the  school,  taken  as  a  single  group.  Trabue  gives  the  follow- 
ing as  the  tentative  standard  scores  in  his  Language  Scales  B,  C,  D, 
and  E,  which,  he  says,  are  practically  equal  in  difl&culty. 

TABLE  XXIV 
Tentative  Standard  Scores  in  Trabue^ s  Language  Scales  B,  C,  D,  and  E  (Trabue) 


Grade 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

IX 

X 

XI 

XII 

Median 

9.6 

11.0 

12.3 

13.3 

14.2 

15.3 

15.8 

16.2 

Since  in  Table  XXIII  the  individual  scores  represent  the  sum  of 
the  scores  in  two  scales,  if  we  assume  those  scales  to  be  of  equal 
difficulty,  the  scores  there  given  may  be  compared  with  the  standards 
by  dividing  them  by  2.  With  that  adjustment,  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
special  5th  grade  reaches  the  8th-grade  standard,  and  the  6th  grade 
almost,  though  not  quite,  reaches  the  9th-grade.  The  total  5th-grade 
group,  treated  in  the  mass,  excels  the  6th-grade  standard,  and  in  the 
same  way  the  total  6th  grade  goes  above  the  standard  proposed  for 
the  seventh.  Trabue  remarks,  however,  that  his  proposed  standards 
are  more  likely  to  prove  too  low  than  too  high. 

Reading 

The  reading  scales  which  were  used  were  those  devised  by  Thorn- 
dike,  namely,  his  Reading  Scale  A^^  and  Reading  Scale  Alpha  2.^^ 
Reading  Scale  A,  or  the  ''visual  vocabulary  scale,"  is  designed  to 
measure  ability  in  reading  words,  while  Scale  Alpha  2  measures  ability 
in  paragraph  reading.  Both  scales  primarily  measure  comprehension, 
leaving  speed  out  of  account,  although  the  latter  is  an  important 
element  in  reading. 

Thorndike  Reading  Scale  A,  the  visual  vocabulary  scale,  was  given 
to  the  selected  room  on  October  17,  and  to  the  control  rooms  on 
January  18,  just  three  months  later.  This  difference  in  time  would 
work  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  selected  pupils,  and  must  be  taken 
into  account  in  comparing  their  scores  with  those  made  by  the  pupils 
in  the  other  rooms.    By  Thorndike's  method  of  scoring,  the  selected 

^*  Thorndike,  E.  L.  The  measurement  of  ability  in  reading.  Teachers  College 
Record,  15:  September,  1914,  207-277. 

"Thorndike,  E.  L.  An  improved  scale  for  measuring  ability  in  reading. 
Teachers  College  Record,  16:  November,  1915,  31-53. 


RESULTS  OF  THE  EDUCATIONAL  TESTS 


71 


5th  grade  attained  a  class  score  of  6 .  38  and  the  selected  6th  grade  one 
of  7.83.  Thorndike's  standards  for  this  test,  by  class  scores,  are  for 
the  5th  grade,  5.3;  for  the  6th,  6.4;  for  the  7th,  7.1;  and  for  the  8th, 
8.2.  It  will  be  seen,  then,  that  our  5th  grade,  shortly  after  the 
beginning  of  the  year,  had  attained  practically  the  6th-grade  standard 
in  this  test,  while  the  6th  grade,  at  the  same  time,  had  almost  achieved 
the  8th-grade  standard. 

In  addition  to  being  scored  according  to  Thorndike's  directions, 
this  test  was  also  scored  by  the  method  of  dividing  the  per  cent  of 
accuracy  by  the  time.  Table  XXV  shows  the  results  as  scored  by  the 
latter  method. 

TABLE  XXV 
Thorndike's  Reading  Scale  A,  Accuracy  Divided  by  Time 


NUMBER  OF  PUPILS 

Fifth  Grade 

Sixth  Grade 

Score* 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

21-30     

1 

8 
5 
5 
8 
4 
6 
3 
2 
2 
1 
5 
1 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 

0 
0 
2 
3 
1 
2 

? 

3 
1 
1 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 

1 

0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 

1 
1 
2 
3 
3 
7 
7 
8 
6 
5 
3 
2 
1 
2 
3 
0 
0 
1 
1 
2 
0 
1 
0 
0 
0 
0 

0 

31-  40     

0 

41-50     

0 

51-60 

0 

61-  70 

0 

71-  80 

2 

81-90 

0 

91-100 

0 

101-110 

1 

111-120                .    . 

1 

121-130     .       .    .    . 

1 

131-140 

2 

141-150 

1 

151-160 

1 

161-170 

2 

171-180 

0 

181-190 

1 

191-200     .       .    .    . 

1 

201-210 

0 

211-220 

0 

221-230.... 

0 

231-240 

0 

241-250 

1 

251-260 

0 

261-350     . 

0 

351-360 

1 

Sum 

72.5 

78.5 

26-204.4 

51 

71.3 

75.3 

41-204.4 

15 

78.4 

89.3 

26-145 

104.3 

117.2 

26-354.5 

59 

100.4 
106.7 
26-236 

15 

Group: 
Median 

147  4 

Average 

158  5 

Range 

78-354.5 

*  To  avoid  decimal  points,  these  scores  have  been  multiplied  by  100. 


72 


NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  I J 


Thorndike's  Scale  Alpha  2  was  given  in  all  the  rooms  at  about  the 
middle  of  February.  In  scoring  the  results,  only  Steps  7  to  9,  inclu- 
sive, were  taken  into  account.  This  test  was  also  scored  in  two  ways. 
The  class  score  for  the  special  5th  grade,  computed  by  Thorndike's 
methods,  was  7 .  14,  and  for  the  6th  it  was  7 .  25.  Thorndike's  standard 
for  the  5th  grade  is  5 . 7 ;  for  the  6th,  6 . 5 ;  for  the  7th,  7 . 0;  and  for  the 
8th,  7.5.  The  special  5th  grade,  therefore,  at  the  time  this  test  was 
given,  had  attained  an  ability  in  comprehension  of  paragraphs  some- 


TABLE  XXVI 
Thorndike's  Reading  Scale  Alpha  2,  Steps  7  to  P.    Scores  by  Sum  of  Weighted  Answers 


NUMBER 

OF  PUPILS 

Fifth  Grad< 

< 

5 

Sixth  Grad( 

1 

t 

Scores 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

11-  15 



..... 

1 
0 
2 
1 
0 
1 
3 
3 
3 
6 
4 
4 
4 
3 
7 
1 
2 
2 
0 
4 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 

0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
1 
0 
0 
0 
0 

1 
1 
1 

0 
0 

1 

2 
0 
0 
2 
2 
2 
1 
0 
0 
1 
0 

0 
0 
1 
0 
0 
4 
1 
2 
4 
4 
1 
5 
7 
2 
5 
0 
3 
3 
1 
4 
4 
1 
2 
0 
2 
1 
1 
1 

0 

16-  20 

0 

21-25 

0 

26-30 

0 

31-35 

0 

36-40 

1 

41-45 

0 

46-50     ... 

0 

51-55 

0 

56-60 

0 

61-  65 

0 

66-70 

0 

71-75 

3 

76-80 

81-  85 

1 
1 

86-90 

0 

91-95 

1 

96-100     ... 

0 

101-105 

0 

106-110 

0 

111-115 

1 

116-120 

3 

121-125 

0 

126-130 

131-135 

1 
1 

136-140 

141-145.    .    .    . 

0 
0 

146-151 

2 

Sum 

74.5 

75.63 

14-141.66 

51 

76.5 

68.14 

14-108.3 

15 

112.25 

101.00 

44-141.66 

82.25 
86.96 
21-149 

59 

76.83 
82.44 
21-148 

15 

Group: 
Median 

113.50 

Average 

102.04 

Range 

39-149 

RESULTS  OF  THE  EDUCA  TTONAL  TESTS  73 

what  above  the  standard  to  be  expected  of  the  7th  grade,  while  the 
special  6th  grade  was  a  little  higher,  though  not  quite  up  to  the  8th- 
grade  standard.  Allowing  for  the  fact  that  at  the  time  this  test  was 
given  these  special  grades  were,  by  virtue  of  the  work  they  had  done 
and  were  doing,  really  at  the  beginning  of  the  6th  and  7th  grades, 
respectively,  their  class  scores  are  a  year  ahead  of  the  standards  set 
for  the  test. 

The  other  way  in  which  Scale  Alpha  2  was  scored  was  by  multi- 
plying the  number  of  correct  answers  at  each  step  of  the  scale  by  the 
value  of  the  step  and  taking  the  sum  of  the  products  thus  obtained. 
Table  XXVI  (on  opposite  page)  displays  the  results  by  this  method 
of  scoring. 

The  difference  in  favor  of  the  special  room  over  the  control 
rooms  is  much  more  marked  with  Scale  Alpha  2  than  with 
Scale  A.  It  will  be  noticed  that  on  the  latter  scale,  the  selected  5th 
grade  in  median  score  again  excels  the  total  6th  grade.  This  did  not 
happen  with  the  scores  for  Scale  A,  but  it  must  be  remembered  that, 
as  that  scale  was  given,  the  control  rooms  had  an  advantage  of  three 
months'  time  over  the  experimental  room — a  circumstance  which 
would  tend  to  decrease  somewhat  the  difference  between  them. 

Summary 

This  chapter  has  been  devoted  to  a  consideration  of  the  results 
obtained  by  applying  various  tests  of  ability  in  the  fundamental 
branches  of  the  course  of  study  to  the  pupils  of  the  experimental 
room  at  different  times  throughout  the  year.  In  some  cases  it  has 
been  possible  to  compare  these  results  with  standard  scores  or  norms 
already  evaluated  or  proposed.  In  other  cases,  the  scores  obtained  in 
the  experimental  room  have  been  compared  with  results  secured  by 
giving  the  same  tests  to  a  control  group,  made  up  of  children  in  other 
rooms  enrolling  pupils  of  the  same  grades.  Quality  of  handwriting 
was  measured  by  the  Ayres  and  Thorndike  scales,  spelling  ability  by 
Ayres'  scale  and  Starch's  lists,  ability  in  the  fundamental  operations 
of  arithmetic  by  the  Woody  arithmetic  scales  and  the  Woody-McCall 
scales  in  the  mixed  fundamentals,  arithmetical  reasoning  by  Bonser's 
tests  for  mathematical  judgment,  quality  of  composition  by  the 
Hillegas-Thorndike  scale,  linguistic  ability  of  a  more  general  type  by 


74  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  IT 

Trabue's  completion-test  language  scales,  ability  to  comprehend 
words  by  Thorndike's  reading  scale  A,  and  ability  to  comprehend 
sentences  by  the  same  author's  reading  scale  Alpha  2. 

The  results  of  these  tests  have  been  markedly  consistent.  When 
the  pupils  of  the  special  room  are  measured  by  the  scales  and  tests  in 
any  subject  for  which  norms  have  been  provided,  they  are  found  to  be 
at  least  one  year  advanced.  In  every  case,  save  two,  when  the  scores 
of  a  test  in  the  special  room  have  been  compared  with  the  scores  made 
by  the  control  groups  in  the  same  test,  it  has  been  seen  that  the 
median  score  attained  by  the  special  5  th  grade  has  reached  or 
exceeded  that  made  by  the  whole  6th  grade  of  the  school,  treated  as  a 
single  group,  and  including,  it  is  to  be  remembered,  the  6th-grade 
pupils  enrolled  in  the  special  room.  The  two  exceptions  are  found  in 
the  Woody-McCall  Scale  B  I,  when  scored  by  time  required  for  one 
correct  solution  (Table  XVII)  and  in  the  Thorndike  visual  vocabu- 
lary reading  scale,  when  scored  by  accuracy  divided  by  time  (Table 
XXV). 

In  the  last  chapter  it  was  shown  that,  judged  by  the  ordinary 
estimates  of  the  quality  of  school  work — teachers'  marks,  examina- 
tion marks,  and  the  like — the  5th-grade  class  of  the  experimental 
room  had,  by  about  the  middle  of  the  year,  been  recognized  as  ready 
and  fit  to  go  on  with  the  work  of  the  next  grade,  and  that  they  had 
accordingly  taken  up  that  work.  The  same  thing  is  true  of  the 
special  6th  grade.  The  results  of  the  tests  which  have  been  discussed 
in  this  chapter  show  that  the  5th  grade  at  that  time  had  become  in  all 
reality  a  6th  grade — and  not  merely  a  6th  grade  because  it  was  doing 
the  work  of  the  6th  year  in  the  course  of  study;  it  had  been  measured 
against  the  total  6th-grade  group  of  the  school,  and  had  been  found  to 
equal  or  surpass  it  in  median  and  average  achievement.  It  has  not 
been  possible  to  measure  the  special  6th  grade  against  the  7  th  grade  of 
the  school,  but  so  far  as  we  have  been  able  to  determine  by  the  use  of 
the  tests  for  which  standards  are  given,  it,  too,  has  justified  the  action 
of  those  in  charge  of  it  in  allowing  it  to  take  up  the  work  of  the  7th 
grade.  So  long  as  only  teachers'  marks  or  opinions  are  offered  as 
evidence  in  favor  of  the  rapid  advancement  of  bright  pupils,  the 
question  may  arise  whether  these  pupils  are  advanced  in  anything 
more  than  name.  In  this  particular  case,  however,  the  judgment  of 
the  teacher  and  the  superintendent  concerning  the  ability  of  the 


RESULTS  OF  THE  EDUCATIONAL  TESTS  75 

pupils  to  do  the  work  of  the  next  higher  grade  was  corroborated  by 
the  more  scientific  scales  and  tests,  which  showed  that,  although  these 
pupils  were  by  May  1st  a  year  ahead  of  where  they  would  have  been 
in  the  course  of  study  had  they  remained  in  the  regular  rooms,  they 
were  not  misplaced,  at  least  so  far  as  ability  in  the  fundamental 
branches  was  concerned. 

If  we  admit  the  validity  of  the  various  tests  and  scales,  and  if  we 
admit  that  the  conditions  under  which  the  experiment  was  carried  out 
may  be  regarded  as  typical — and  it  is  difficult  to  find  any  reason  for 
not  admitting  it — then  we  have  shown  that  children  representing  at 
least  the  top  tenth  of  the  5th  and  6th  grades  are  able  to  do  two  years 
of  the  work  of  those  grades  in  one  year. 


CHAPTER  V 

RESULTS    OF    A    PRACTICE-TEST    IN 
MULTIPLICATION 

In  order  to  secure  information  concerning  the  effects  of  practice,  or 
drill,  a  practice-test  in  multiplication  was  carried  on  during  the  two 
weeks  between  February  23  and  March  12,  1917.  The  material  used 
for  this  experiment  consisted  of  Sheets  15  and  16  of  Thompson's 
Minimum  Essentials  in  Arithmetic}  Sheet  16  is  a  quick- written  test 
sheet  in  multiplication  including  products  up  to  100  not  given  in 
multiplication  tables  1-12.  It  contains  162  indicated  multiplications, 
each  followed  by  a  space  in  which  the  product  is  to  be  written,  thus: 
13X5=  ,2X13=  ,  and  so  on.  Sheet  15  is  a  practice  sheet  of 
exactly  similar  character,  save  that  it  is  printed  on  both  sides,  so  that 
the  incomplete  multiplications  on  Side  A  are  repeated  on  Side  B, 
but  in  a  different  order. 

On  Friday,  February  23,  Sheet  16  was  used  in  giving  a  check  test 
to  all  the  rooms  in  the  building  enrolling  pupils  in  the  5  th  or  6th 
grades,  namely.  Room  5  Y,  containing  38  pupils;  Room  5-6  F,  with 
19  5th-grade  and  19  6th-grade  pupils;  Room  6  G,  enrolling  43  pupils 
in  the  6th  grade;  and  the  'experimental,'  or  'special,'  room,  which  at 
the  time  this  test  was  given  had  a  membership  of  16  in  the  5th  and 
16  in  the  6th  grade  (at  about  the  middle  of  the  year  a  pupil  had  been 
transferred  to  each  of  these  grades  from  one  of  the  regular  rooms). 
It  will  be  remembered  that  Rooms  5  Y,  5-6  F,  and  6  G  constitute 
what  in  previous  chapters  has  been  referred  to  as  the  "control  group." 
The  practice  test  itself  was  not  carried  out  in  Room  5-6  F,  but  that 
room  was  tested  at  the  beginning  and  at  the  end  of  the  experiment, 
and  thus  served  as  a  check  upon  the  improvement  in  the  other  rooms, 
the  better  so  because  it  contained  pupils  of  both  the  grades  which 
were    receiving    practice. 

*  Ginn  and  Company,  Publishers. 

76 


PRA  CTICE-TEST  IN  MULTI PLICA  TION  77 

Method  of  Giving  the  Tests 

In  giving  this  initial  test,  the  papers  were  distributed  face  down, 
the  nature  of  the  work  to  be  done  was  carefully  explained  to  the  chil- 
dren, and  they  were  told  to  work  as  rapidly  as  possible.  At  a  given 
signal  they  turned  the  papers  over  and  began  work.  As  soon  as  any 
child  had  finished,  he  raised  his  hand,  and  his  time,  taken  on  a  stop- 
watch, was  immediately  recorded.  In  scoring  the  papers,  the  per 
cent  of  accuracy  was  computed  for  each,  and  the  time  reduced  to 
seconds.  These  two  measures  were  combined  into  a  single  measure  by 
dividing  the  time  by  the  per  cent  of  accuracy,  thus  obtaining  a  quan- 
tity which  may  be  described  as  the  number  of  seconds  required  to 
attain  one  per  cent  of  accuracy.  The  same  test  was  given  at  the  close 
of  the  two  weeks'  practice  and  scored  in  the  same  way.  The  results  of 
these  two  tests  are  exhibited  in  tables  which  will  be  included  in  the 
present  chapter. 

The  actual  practice  was  done  under  a  somewhat  different  method. 
For  this.  Sheet  15,  which  has  already  been  described,  was  used.  Since 
this  sheet  is  printed  upon  both  sides,  it  was  decided,  in  order  to  restrict 
the  learning  to  the  "multiplication  facts"  (to  use  Thompson's  phrase) 
that  are  involved,  to  begin  the  practice  on  one  side  of  the  sheet  one 
day  and  the  other  the  next.  Consequently,  the  first  day's  practice 
began  on  Side  A,  the  second  on  Side  B,  and  so  on  as  long  as  the  prac- 
tice lasted.  In  this  way,  there  was  less  opportunity  for  forming  con- 
nections between  adjacent  products  or  for  learning  the  products  as  a 
series  down  a  column.  In  giving  the  practice  tests  the  papers  were 
distributed  with  the  side  upon  which  the  day's  practice  was  to  begin 
turned  down.  Practically  the  same  instructions  and  methods  of 
beginning  the  work  were  used  as  in  connection  with  the  initial  check 
test.  Each  day's  practice  was  limited  to  ten  minutes,  at  the  end  of 
which  time  a  signal  to  stop  was  given,  and  the  papers  were  collected. 
If  any  pupil  succeeded  in  finishing  the  first  side  of  the  sheet  before  the 
end  of  the  practice  period,  he  turned  the  sheet  over  and  began  work  on 
the  other  side.  The  few  pupils  who  now  and  then  succeeded  in  finish- 
ing both  sides  within  the  allotted  ten  minutes  were  at  once  supplied 
with  another  copy  of  the  same  sheet,  handed  them  in  such  a  way  that 
they  began  work  on  the  same  side  with  which  they  had  begun  the 
first  sheet. 


78  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 

The  first  practice  test  was  given  on  Monday,  February  27;  the  last 
one  on  Friday,  March  9,  with  the  final  check  test  on  the  following 
Monday.  It  will  be  observed  that  Saturday  and  Sunday  intervened 
between  the  initial  test  and  the  first  practice,  and  that  the  same  inter- 
ruption came  between  the  fifth  and  sixth  practice  periods,  and  be- 
tween the  last  practice  period  and  the  final  check  test.  All  the  tests 
were  given  at  the  same  time  of  day  in  each  room,  and  as  nearly  as 
possible  at  the  same  time  in  all  the  rooms.  In  Rooms  6G  and  5Y  they 
were  given  at  1:30  P.M.,  and  in  the  special  room  at  2:00  P.M.^  In 
Room  5-6F  the  check  tests,  which  were  the  only  ones  given,  were  in 
each  case  given  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 

Method  of  Scoring 

In  scoring  the  results  the  pupils  exchanged  papers  and  marked 
mistakes  as  the  correct  products  were  read  to  them.  The  scoring  of 
the  pupils  was  afterwards  checked,  but  almost  no  errors  were  found. 
The  score  for  each  paper  was  taken  simply  as  the  number  of  correct 
products  written  in  ten  minutes. 

At  the  close  of  each  day's  practice  the  pupils  were  told  their  scores 
of  the  day  before.  These  they  recorded,  and  were  thereby  enabled  to 
keep  track  of  their  progress.  The  effect  of  this  was  to  ward  off  a  drop 
in  efficiency  through  loss  of  interest.  Those  who  had  the  experiment 
in  charge  feel  that  there  was  no  such  loss,  although  at  the  close  of  the 
second  week  of  practice  there  were  signs  that  a  decline  in  interest 
might  have  appeared,  in  the  case  of  at  least  some  of  the  pupils,  had 
the  experiment  been  continued  much  longer. 

The  accompanying  tables  show,  by  rooms  and  individuals,  the 
daily  scores  (correct  multiplications)  made  during  the  ten  practice 
periods.  No  broken  records  are  included;  that  is,  the  scores  are  given 
only  for  those  pupils  who  were  present  for  practice  every  day  during 
the  two  weeks. 

'  The  tests  were  given  in  Room  6G  by  the  author,  in  the  other  rooms  by  Miss  Coy . 


PRACTICE-TEST  IN  MULTIPLICATION 


79 


TABLE  XXVII 

Improvement  in  Midtiplication.     Twenty-seven  Fifth-Grade  Pupils.    Score  by  Number 
Correct  Products.    Room  5  Y 


No.* 

Mon. 

Tues. 

Wed. 

Thur. 

Fri. 

Mon. 

Tues. 

Wed. 

Thur. 

Fri. 

1 

98 

113 

105 

117 

130 

129 

129 

141 

157 

156 

2 

201 

213 

239 

240 

270 

267 

292 

278 

298 

290 

3 

69 

84 

68 

99 

88 

105 

108 

110 

113 

121 

5 

187 

182 

188 

183 

202 

160 

254 

236 

251 

272 

6 

63 

65 

60 

75 

88 

71 

79 

106 

104 

131 

10 

53 

66 

60 

72 

79 

82 

88 

82 

108 

120 

11 

120 

132 

159 

178 

196 

175 

189 

204 

202 

184 

12 

57 

86 

64 

106 

111 

115 

133 

122 

123 

142 

13 

84 

83 

67 

53 

84 

87 

88 

94 

95 

96 

14 

98 

96 

96 

113 

113 

113 

141 

144 

150 

161 

16 

199 

180 

196 

185 

205 

202 

223 

203 

187 

203 

17 

131 

135 

158 

162 

154 

136 

166 

160 

173 

175 

18 

111 

119 

135 

153 

165 

163 

178 

186 

188 

195 

19 

137 

117 

118 

153 

158 

161 

167 

178 

193 

213 

20 

91 

82 

79 

108 

117 

103 

143 

130 

129 

147 

21 

97 

100 

111 

131 

141 

158 

161 

161 

176 

175 

22 

58 

56 

53 

55 

85 

94 

91 

107 

110 

146 

23 

168 

157 

146 

170 

159 

166 

184 

197 

222 

218 

24 

71 

94 

111 

120 

137 

125 

150 

157 

144 

145 

26 

108 

114 

130 

140 

150 

147 

174 

170 

176 

181 

27 

67 

76 

77 

71 

75 

94 

93 

84 

95 

103 

28 

130 

149 

154 

173 

183 

169 

196 

197 

210 

212 

29 

88 

90 

110 

143 

147 

149 

168 

162 

174 

172 

30 

93 

88 

103 

100 

123 

127 

135 

149 

155 

180 

32 

79 

74 

96 

77 

95 

102 

122 

170 

135 

129 

37 

79 

78 

90 

101 

113 

123 

116 

134 

156 

150 

41 

88 

92 

95 

114 

120 

132 

149 

147 

133 

137 

Average. . . 

100.96 

108.2 

113.6 

125.8 

136.6 

135.4 

153.2 

155.9 

161.4 

172.4 

*  Breaks  in  numbering  are  caused  by  the  omission  of  incomplete  records. 


80 

NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  11 

TABLE  XXVm 

Improvement  in  Multiplication. 

Twenty- 

nine  Sixth-Grade  Pupils.    Score  by  Numberm 

Correct  Products.    Room  6  G 

No. 

Mon. 

Tues. 

Wed. 

Thur. 

Fri. 

Mon. 

Tues. 

Wed. 

Thur. 

Fri.  . 

1 

209 

247 

266 

311 

315 

349 

354 

390 

375 

345 

2 

152 

168 

181 

194 

195 

181 

214 

237 

235 

205 

3 

140 

151 

170 

189 

198 

193 

189 

202 

212 

215 

4 

169 

168 

184 

172 

235 

224 

242 

275 

281 

271 

5 

216 

243 

285 

299 

352 

365 

375 

398 

387 

391 

6 

106 

99 

112 

128 

140 

146 

144 

166 

175 

184 

7 

174 

198 

211 

255 

266 

275 

295 

314 

306 

304 

9 

114 

122 

128 

131 

132 

147 

162 

163 

149 

167 

10 

69 

93 

113 

110 

125 

117 

132 

156 

158 

165 

11 

165 

180 

183 

209 

230 

248 

232 

239 

245 

275 

12 

67 

85 

113 

107 

130 

124 

142 

152 

138 

140 

13 

147 

166 

179 

203 

216 

236 

230 

246 

238 

243 

14 

110 

121 

127 

149 

139 

151 

169 

174 

167 

177 

15 

193 

221 

238 

289 

266 

257 

232 

290 

267 

277 

16 

60 

65 

68 

77 

99 

118 

110 

127 

120 

125 

18 

118 

149 

140 

179 

161 

179 

190 

190 

193 

203 

20 

182 

194 

218 

250 

254 

253 

268 

292 

316 

345 

21 

53 

78 

94 

117 

109 

101 

128 

121 

115 

127 

23 

195 

208 

199 

223 

218 

228 

229 

252 

231 

212 

24 

120 

128 

135 

122 

123 

136 

173 

165 

176 

186 

25 

157 

166 

199 

190 

186 

212 

218 

230 

243 

267 

28 

95 

106 

125 

133 

126 

119 

128 

156 

160 

164 

29 

185 

239 

209 

242 

246 

286 

314 

343 

306 

345 

30 

56 

102 

95 

119 

118 

111 

156 

174 

157 

187 

32 

71 

73 

78 

83 

90 

94 

95 

89 

99 

113 

37 

135 

148 

117 

167 

187 

193 

199 

193 

178 

200 

39 

204 

252 

251 

286 

297 

314 

230 

333 

330 

331 

40 

80 

65 

96 

98 

123 

117 

136 

140 

144 

145 

43 

47 

64 

52 

70 

64 

84 

72 

72 

88 

129 

Average. . . 

130.7 

148.3 

157.5 

175.8 

184.1 

188.6 

202.0 

216.5 

213.1 

222.0 

PRACTICE-TEST  IN  MULTIPLICATION 

TABLE  XXIX 

Improvement  in  Multiplication.    Special  Room 


81 


Grade 

No. 

Mon. 

Tues. 

Wed. 

Thur. 

Fri. 

Mon. 

Tues. 

Wed. 

Thur. 

Fri. 

1 

90 

92 

128 

116 

153 

147 

153 

168 

187 

194 

2 

115 

98 

132 

142 

174 

153 

149 

124 

152 

168 

3 

122 

161 

175 

189 

203 

194 

201 

214 

211 

226 

4 

73 

76 

96 

94 

124 

129 

135 

137 

154 

194 

5 

78 

100 

118 

146 

159 

160 

163 

159 

186 

175 

6 

99 

99 

81 

114 

130 

131 

146 

151 

158 

165 

V 

8 

118 

99 

118 

140 

137 

150 

155 

175 

185 

193 

10 

126 

156 

168 

186 

192 

193 

194 

204 

198 

205 

11 

111 

145 

142 

136 

160 

162 

152 

174 

174 

175 

13 

134 

105 

108 

116 

104 

135 

151 

134 

157 

164 

14 

60 

76 

93 

99 

96 

106 

102 

115 

120 

129 

15 

104 

113 

152 

151 

174 

150 

161 

187 

204 

211 

31 

95 

89 

94 

111 

105 

114 

110 

126 

130 

144 

A-verage . . 

101.9 

108.4 

123.5 

133.8 

147.0 

148.1 

151.7 

159.1 

170.5 

180.2 

16 

130 

144 

156 

166 

160 

163 

169 

175 

185 

184 

17 

169 

184 

193 

213 

218 

217 

245 

254 

276 

323 

18 

221 

223 

220 

270 

278 

301 

301 

319 

358 

383 

19 

174 

188 

233 

257 

256 

222 

246 

277 

275 

300 

20 

160 

193 

199 

215 

222 

225 

242 

275 

228 

258 

21 

153 

142 

142 

170 

157 

152 

150 

186 

202 

209 

22 

116 

98 

145 

160 

150 

148 

170 

176 

176 

167 

VI 

23 

98 

126 

146 

151 

156 

158 

155 

169 

192 

177 

24 

158 

160 

190 

189 

209 

205 

232 

234 

257 

277 

25 

171 

184 

193 

210 

216 

222 

218 

242 

246 

267 

26 

185 

198 

232 

213 

240 

233 

231 

271 

298 

331 

27 

247 

298 

356 

264 

365 

379 

370 

402 

393 

405 

28 

139 

165 

184 

222 

239 

243 

243 

247 

264 

269 

29 

186 

195 

200 

208 

214 

242 

264 

275 

293 

279 

30 

160 

162 

179 

198 

206 

215 

231 

221 

224 

256 

32 

100 

92 

123 

119 

137 

155 

177 

174 

181 

198 

1 
Average.. 

160.4 

172.0 

193.2 

207.8 

213.9 

217.5 

227.8 

243.6 

253.0 

267.7 

The  Practice-Curves 
These  tables  and  the  curves  drawn  from  them  are  sufficiently  self- 
evident  as  to  need  little  discussion.  Just  a  few  features  may  be 
pointed  out,  however.  In  the  first  place,  it  will  be  noticed  that  on  the 
first  day  of  the  practice  test,  the  average  ability  of  the  5th-grade  con- 
trol group  and  the  special  5th-grade  group  was  practically  the  same 
(about  101  correct  solutions  in  the  ten  minutes  of  practice  time).  At 
the  end  of  the  ten  periods  of  practice,  the  average  score  of  the  control 
group  was  172,  while  that  of  the  special  group  was  180.  Of  course, 
this  is  not  a  great  difference  even  yet,  but  it  must  be  remembered  that 


82  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 


I 


a  difference  of  eight  correct  solutions  at  that  level  represents  a 
larger  difference  in  attainment  than  a  difference  of  eight  solutions  at 
the  level  at  which  the  test  began.  The  difference  is  more  marked  in 
the  case  of  the  6th-grade  groups.  The  control  group  began  with  an 
average  score  of  131  and  made  a  gross  gain  of  91,  while  the  selected 
group  began  30  multiplications  above  them  and  made  a  gross  gain  of 
107,  so  that  the  difference  between  the  two  groups,  in  average  score, 
was  larger  at  the  close  of  the  practice  than  at  the  beginning,  and  the 
difference  is  all  the  greater  when  we  take  into  consideration  the 
increased  difficulty  attending  improvement  as  the  upper  limit  is 
more  and  more  closely  approached. 

Inspection  of  the  curves  drawn  from  the  daily  averages  of  the 
several  groups  reveals  a  check  in  their  rise,  located  at  the  sixth  period, 
which  came  on  a  Monday.  In  this,  the  influence  of  the  lack  of  prac- 
tice on  Saturday  and  Sunday  may  be  shown.  It  will  also  be  observed 
that  this  loss  was  rather  quickly  made  up.  In  only  two  instances  did 
any  group  in  its  average  score  fall  below  a  score  which  it  had  already 
attained,  and  only  one  of  these  is  of  any  consequence.  This  happened 
in  Room  6G,  or  the  6th-grade  control  group,  just  after  the  middle  of 
the  second  week.  It  is  the  opinion  of  the  writer  that  the  great 
increase  in  the  room's  score  upon  Wednesday  of  that  week  was  due  to 
an  increased  enthusiasm  arising  from  a  general  agreement  among  the 
pupils  that  they  wouW  see  how  good  a  record  they  could  make.  If 
such  was  the  case,  there  was  a  slight  falling  off  in  enthusiasm  next 
day,  although  Friday's  score  in  turn  exceeded  the  high  score  made  on 
Wednesday.  It  is  difficult  to  determine  in  any  such  experiment  just 
what  part  is  played  by  changes  in  the  attitude  of  the  subjects  (rivalry, 
increase  and  decrease  of  interest,  ideals  of  accuracy,  etc.).  It  really 
does  not  matter  so  much,  however,  since  these  things  are  characteris- 
tic traits  which  enter  quite  intimately  into  the  work  of  learning,  so 
that  to  try  to  eliminate  them  from  a  practice  experiment  like  this 
would  create  an  artificial  situation.  Since  the  aim  of  the  experiment 
was  to  see  how  much  improvement  these  children  could  make  in 
learning  these  particular  number  combinations  under  actual  school 
conditions,  it  was  considered  unwise  to  caution  them  against  doing 
things  which  they  otherwise  might  not  think  of,  and  for  that  reason 
nothing  was  said  about  practice  at  home  or  elsewhere  outside  of  the 
of  the  time  set  apart  for  it  in  the  schoolroom.  So  far  as  could  be 
learned  after  the  experiment  was  finished,  very  little,  if  any,  outside 
practice  was  engaged  in. 


PRACTICE-TEST  IN  MULTIPLICATION 


83 


Results  of  the  Check  Tests 

To  secure  data  concerning  improvement  in  speed  and  accuracy, 
as  well  as  to  obtain  a  check  upon  the  experiment  in  general,  the  test 
which  has  been  described  above  as  the  initial  and  final  check  test 
was  given  to  all  the  rooms  which  took  part  in  the  practice,  as  well  as 
to  another  room  containing  pupils  of  the  same  grades,  but  which  did 
not  participate  in  the  practice  series  proper.  Tables  XXX  to 
XXXIII,  inclusive,  show  the  results  obtained  by  these  tests.  In 
interpreting  the  figures  given  in  the  last  two  columns  of  each  of  these 
tables,  namely,  the  quotients  obtained  by  dividing  the  time  by  the 
accuracy,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  smaller  the  figure,  the 
higher  the  degree  of  attainment. 

TABLE  XXX 

Results  of  Initial  and  Final  Check  Tests.     Fifth-Grade  Pupils.    Room  5  Y 


Pupil's 
Number 

PER  CENT.  OF 
ACCURACY 

TIME  IN  SECONDS 

TIME  -i-  ACCURACY 

Initial 

Final 

Initial 

Final 

Initial 

Final 

1 

96.9 
98.1 
99.4 
99.4 
97.5 
98.8 
99.4 
79.0 
94.4 

100.0 
99.4 
95.1 
98.8 
93.8 

100.0 
91.9 
99.4 
96.3 

100.0 
97.5 

100.0 
98.8 
96.9 
98.8 
95.1 

98.1 
99.4 
98.1 
93.8 
97.5 
99.4 
99.4 
83.3 
96.3 

100.0 
99.4 
96.9 
98.1 
97.5 
98.1 
96.3 
99.4 
98.1 

100.0 
99.4 
99.4 
98.1 
96.9 
98.1 
94.4 

802 

583 

1183 

660 

1170 

1350 

870 

1170 

836 

505 

690 

1710 

1000 

805 

1020 

1235 

705 

1030 

1590 

1125 

775 

900 

1155 

1035 

1070 

640 
327 
849 
364 
892 
888 
458 
814 
606 
445 
597 
616 
474 
652 
558 
944 
447 
740 
570 
825 
465 
486 
816 
647 
750 

8.3 

5.9 

11.9 

6.7 

12.0 

13.7 

8.8 

14.8 

8.8 

5.0 

7.0 

18.0 

10.1 

8.6 

10.2 

13.4 

7.1 

10.7 

15.9 

11.5 

7.7 

9.1 

11.9 

10.5 

11.3 

6.5 

2  .    .    . 

3  3 

3 

8  7 

5 

3  9 

6 

9  2 

10 

8  9 

11 

4.6 

13 

9.8 

14  .    . 

6  3 

16 

4  5 

17 

6  0 

18 

6  4 

19 

4  8 

20 

5.7 

21 

5.7 

22   .    .    . 

9  8 

23 

4  5 

24 

7  6 

26 

5  7 

27 

8  3 

28  . 

4  7 

29 

4  9 

32 

8  4 

37 

6  67 

41 

7  9 

Average 

Poorest 

Best 

97.0 

79.0 

100.0 

97.4 

83.3 

100.0 

959 

1710 

505 

608 
944 

327 

10.4 

18.0 

5.0 

6.5 
9.8 
3  3 

84 


NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  J  I 


TABLE  XXXI 

Results  of  Initial  and  Final  Check  Tests.    Sixth-Grade  Pupils.    Room  6  G 


PER  CENT.  OF 
ACCURACY 

TTTVfF.  IN  SECONDS 

TIMET- ACCURACY 

No. 

Initial 

Final 

Initial 

Final 

Initial 

Final 

1 

96.9 
99.4 
96.9 
96.9 
98.1 
96.9 
98.8 

100.0 
98.8 
96.3 
98.8 
98.8 
95.1 
96.3 
98.1 
98.8 
98.8 
96.3 
98.8 
93.8 
97.5 
99.4 
87.1 
95.7 
95.7 

100.0 
96.3 
99.4 

95.1 
98.8 
99.4 
95.7 
93.2 
98.8 
79.0 
97.5 

100.0 
95.1 
94.4 
99.4 
96.9 

100.0 
95.1 
99.4 

100.0 
96.9 
95.1 
77.7 
95.1 
99.4 
96.9 

100.0 
92.6 
98.1 

100.0 
99.4 

520 
771 
545 
480 
780 
552 
605 

1050 
780 
561 
830 
630 
562 
940 
610 
548 
830 
450 
725 
600 
840 
560 

1390 
950 
770 
490 
720 

1500 

315 
429 
505 
328 
245 
605 
300 
625 
630 
405 
570 
400 
404 
835 
470 
315 
875 
364 
545 
260 
745 
420 
605 
775 
526 
280 
655 
955 

5.4 
7.8 
5.6 
5.0 
8.0 
5.7 
6.1 

10.5 
7.9 
5.8 
8.4 
6.4 
5.9 
9.9 
6.2 
5.6 
8.4 
4.7 
7.3 
6.4 
8.6 
5.6 

16.0 

10.0 
8.0 
4.9 
7.5 

15.1 

3  3 

2     

4  3 

3  

5  1 

4 

3  5 

5 

2  6 

S:.:.. .:...: 

6  1 

7  . 

3  8 

9 

6  4 

10 

6  3 

11 

4  3 

12 

6.0 

13        

4  0 

15 

4  2 

16 

8  4 

18 

4.9 

20 

3.2 

21   

8  8 

23 

3  8 

24 

5.7 

25 

3.4 

28 

7.8 

29 

4  2 

30 

6.2 

32 

7.8 

37 

5.7 

39  .    . 

2  9 

40 

6.6 

43 

9.6 

Average 

Poorest 

Best .    . 

93.9 

87.1 

100.0 

96.0 

77.7 
100.0 

744 

1500 

450 

527.7 
955.0 
260.0 

7.33 
15.1 
4.5 

5.3 
9.6 
2.6 

PRACTICE-TEST  IN  MULTIPLICATION 


85 


TABLE  XXXII 

Results  of  Initial  and  Final  Check  Tests.    Special  Room 


PER  CENT  OF 

No. 

ACCURACY 

TIME  IN  SECONDS 

TIME,  -r-  ACCURACY 

Grade 

Initial 

Final 

Initial 

Final 

Initial 

Final 

1 

99.4 

98.8 

1042 

450 

10.5 

4.6 

2 

96.9 

99.4 

825 

510 

8.5 

5.1 

3 

96.3 

95.7 

703 

305 

7.3 

3.2 

4 

99.4 

100.0 

1341 

792 

13.8 

7.9 

5 

99.4 

99.4 

1170 

556 

11.8 

5.6 

6 

95.7 

99.4 

1178 

623 

12.3 

6.3 

V... 

8 
10 

99.4 
98.8 

99.4 
99.4 

805 
760 

432 
406 

8.1 
7.7 

4.4 

4.1 

11 

97.6 

98.1 

883 

504 

9.1 

5.1 

13 

98.8 

97.5 

1053 

526 

10.7 

5.4 

14 

100.0 

100.0 

1232 

712 

12.3 

7.1 

15 

99.4 

98.8 

1070 

495 

10.8 

5.0 

31 

100.0 

99.4 

830 

600 

8.3 

6.0 

Average 

98.5 

98.9 

999 

531 

10.1 

5.3 

Poorest. 



95.7 

95.7 

1341 

792 

13.5 

7.9 

Best 

100.0 

100.0 

703 

305 

7.3 

3.2 



16 

96.9 

96.9 

863 

380 

8.9 

3.9 

17 

98.8 

99.4 

703 

317 

7.1 

3.2 

18 

99.4 

96.9 

457 

227 

4.6 

2.3 

19 

98.8 

98.1 

616 

304 

6.2 

3.1 

20 

99.4 

99.4 

590 

390 

6.0 

3.9 

21 

95.1 

96.3 

827 

460 

8.7 

4.8 

22 

98.1 

98.1 

765 

535 

7.8 

5.5 

VI 

23 

97  5 

96  9 

856 

485 

8  3 

5  0 

24 

95.1 

95.7 

710 

317 

7. "5 

3^3 

25 

98.8 

98.8 

780 

328 

7.9 

3.3 

26 

98.8 

98.1 

540 

225 

5.5 

2.3 

27 

96.9 

99.4 

410 

215 

4.2 

2.1 

28 

98.8 

97.5 

621 

325 

6.3 

3.3 

29 

97.5 

94.4 

612 

290 

6.3 

3.1 

30 

99.4 

98.8 

685 

335 

6.9 

3.4 

32 

99.4 

100.0 

930 

548 

9.4 

5.5 

Average 

98.0 

97.8 

685 

355 

7.01 

3.6 

Poorest. 

95.1 

94.4 

930 

548 

8.9 

5.5 

Best.... 

100.0 

100.0 

410 

215 

4.2 

2.1 

86 


NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK- 
TABLE  XXXIII 


-PART  II 


Results 

of  Initial  and  Final  Check  Tests.    Room  5-6  F  (Un practiced  Room) 

PER  CENT.  OF 

ACCU 

RACY 

TIME  IN 

SECONDS 

TIME^AC 

XURACY 

Grade 

No. 

Initial 

Final 

Initial 

Final 

Initial 

Final 

1 

96.9 

98.1 

945 

807 

9.8 

8.2 

2 

93.2 

98.1 

740 

642 

7.9 

6.5 

3 

100.0 

99.4 

1003 

912 

10.0 

9.2 

4 

98.8 

95.7 

1144 

827 

11.6 

8.6 

5 

91.3 

95.7 

1183 

1120 

13.0 

11.7 

6 

97.5 

97.5 

952 

960 

9.8 

9.9 

V 

7 

96.3 

96.3 

1190 

1118 

12.4 

11.6 

8 

98.1 

99.4 

772 

683 

8.9 

6.9 

9 

96.9 

99.4 

1250 

1273 

12.9 

12.8 

10 

96.9 

95.7 

820 

805 

8.5 

8.4 

11 

96.3 

100.0 

825 

875 

8.6 

8.8 

12 

99.4 

96.3 

845 

687 

8.5 

7.2 

13 

96.9 

96.9 

1006 

912 

10.4 

9.4 

14 

98.1 

95.7 

1054 

933 

10.8 

9.8 

Average 

96.9 

97.4 

989 

897 

10.2 

9.2 

Poorest. 



91.3 

95.7 

1250 

1273 

13.0 

12.8 

Best.... 

100.0 

100.0 

740 

642 

7.9 

6.5 

15 

100.0 

98.8 

706 

642 

7.1 

6.5 

16 

99.4 

98.1 

875 

703 

8.8 

7.8 

17 

99.4 

99.4 

505 

475 

5.1 

4.8 

18 

100.0 

100.0 

805 

623 

8.8 

6.2 

19 

95.7 

93.8 

937 

834 

9.8 

8.9 

20 

100.0 

99.4 

1125 

742 

11.2 

7.5 

VI 

21 

98  8 

87.7 

1332 

1110 

13  5 

12.7 

22 

95.1 

98.8 

1026 

877 

10.8 

8.9 

23 

96.3 

96.9 

695 

820 

7.2 

8.5 

24 

98.1 

95.1 

660 

496 

6.7 

5.2 

25 

97.5 

99.4 

828 

706 

8.5 

7.1 

26 

98.1 

98.8 

1200 

875 

9.4 

8.9 

27 

98.1 

98.8 

440 

380 

4.5 

3.9 

Average 

98.2 

97.3 

835 

714 

8.51 

7.4 

Poorest. 

93.2 
100.0 

93.8 
100.0 

1332 
440 

1110 
380 

13.5 

4.5 

12.7 

Best 

3.9 

Nature  of  the  Improvement 
The  improvement  has  been,  of  course,  an  improvement  in  speed, 
because  the  accuracy  was  already  close  to  the  upper  limit  at  the  begin- 
ning of  practice.  Many  of  the  number  combinations  called  for  were 
already  known,  and  the  rest  could  readily  be  computed  mentally,  so 
that  any  inaccuracy  here  implies  carelessness  rather  than  lack  of 
knowledge.    The  activities  demanded  were  not  wholly  mental,  for  in 


PRACTICE-TEST JNJiULTIPLIC A  TION  87 

addition  to  the  computation  of  the  required  result,  in  case  it  was  not 
known,  there  was  demanded  the  physical  act  of  writing  it  down. 
Improvement  in  time,  therefore,  might  take  place  along  at  least 
two  lines;  (1)  a  product  once  learned  might  be  written  at  once,  with- 
out the  loss  of  time  in  calculation,  and  (2)  there  might  be  a  gain  of 
speed  in  writing  the  results  upon  the  practice  sheet.  It  is  obvious  that 
the  larger  amount  of  gain  resulted  from  improvement  in  the  first 
direction,  though  there  were  instances  of  a  marked  saving  in  time 
through  the  development  of  a  more  expeditious  method  of  writing 
the  results,  as,  for  instance,  that  of  writing  the  two-place  products  in 
the  regular  order  of  the  tens'  digit  first,  instead  of  writing  the  unit 
figure  before  the  tens'  figure.  This  change  generally  took  place  when 
the  product  had  been  learned  so  that  the  calculation  of  it  was  no 
longer  necessary.  Of  the  different  practice  groups,  the  5th-grade 
class  in  the  special  room  had  the  highest  average  per  cent  of  accuracy 
at  the  beginning  of  the  experiment,  and  retained  it  until  the  close. 
The  special  6th-grade  made  no  gain  in  this  respect,  but  suffered  a 
slight  loss.  This  class,  however,  when  measured  by  the  single  score  of 
time  divided  by  accuracy,  shows  by  far  the  greatest  improvement, 
owing  to  its  remarkable  increase  in  speed.  It  is  worth  noting  that  in  this 
test,  as  in  the  great  majority  of  the  educational  tests  discussed  in  the 
preceding  chapter,  the  average  score  (in  time  divided  by  accuracy)  of 
the  special  5th  grade  reaches  that  attained  by  the  6th-grade  pupils  of 
the  control  group,  though  considerably  lower  at  the  beginning.  Two 
weeks^  drill,  therefore,  has  brought  this  special  5th-grade  group,  which  at 
the  time  of  the  experiment  had  done  about  six  weeks  of  6th-grade  work,  up 
to  the  level  of  a  class  which  had  been  doing  the  regular  6th-grade  work  for 
seven  months. 

By  comparing  the  gains  made  in  the  practiced  groups  with  those 
made  by  children  of  the  same  grades  in  the  unpracticed  room,  the 
results  of  the  drill  are  readily  made  apparent.  It  is  interesting  to 
note,  in  this  connection,  that  the  unpracticed  room  actually  does 
show  a  respectable  gain.  This  may  be  due  to  several  factors.  In  the 
first  place,  learning  occurred  in  connection  with  the  first  application 
of  the  test  and  some  of  the  combinations  learned  were  remembered. 
Again,  familiarity  with  the  method  of  the  test  had  been  acquired, 
which  would  result  in  a  saving  of  time.  In  addition  to  these,  the 
regular  work  of  the  schoolroom  in  arithmetic  had  afforded  incidental 
practice  in  multiplication,  and  the  two  weeks  of  training  might  well 
have  functioned  in  the  results  of  the  final  test. 


88  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  11 

Practice  and  Individual  Differences 
A  study  of  the  mdividual  learning  curves  obtained  in  this  multi- 
plication drill,  as  well  as  of  the  curves  showing  the  daily  room  averages 
confirms  the  conclusion,  laid  down  by  so  many  investigators,  that 
practice,  so  far  from  equalizing  individual  differences,  tends  to 
increase  them.  To  the  pupil  with  high  initial  ability,  in  the  great 
majority  of  our  cases,  this  drill  has  given  opportunity  to  reach  an  even 
higher  degree  of  superiority.  Not  much  change  of  rank  has  taken 
place.  In  general,  those  who  led  at  the  initial  test  also  led  in  the 
final.  If  the  two  grades  of  the  special  room  are  treated  as  one  group, 
it  will  be  seen  that  the  highest  three  individuals  in  the  initial  test 
occupy  their  respective  positions  in  the  final  test,  with  no  change  of 
rank  at  all.  The  correlation  between  pupils'  ranks  in  the  two  tests, 
for  the  special  room,  figured  by  the  ^'foot-rule"  method  is  .63,  which 
by  the  conversion  table  gives  us  a  Pearson  correlation  of  r  =  .  84.' 

Our  results  then,  to  repeat  what  has  been  said  above,  are  in  com- 
plete accord  with  those  of  other  investigators  who  have  found  high 
initial  ability  no  barrier  to  profit  by  training,  and  practice  in  any 
given  performance  more  efficient  in  case  of  those  with  high  initial 
ability  in  the  desired  performance,  granted  only  that  the  high  initial 
ability  does  not  represent  a  close  approach  to  the  upper  limit  already 
obtained  by  previous  practice.    To  quote  from  Wells: 

"...  A  superior  performance  at  the  beginning  of  special 
practice  is  not  necessarily,  or  even  probably,  attained  at  the 
sacrifice  of  prospects  for  further  improvement.  A  high  initial 
efficiency  may  carry  with  it  as  much  or  more  prospect  of  improve- 
ment under  special  practice  than  a  low  one.  It  was  not  because 
the  favored  individual  had  had  more  of  the  general  experience 
enabUng  him  to  meet  the  experimental  situation  better,  but  be- 
cause he  possessed  the  native  ability  to  profit  more  by  such  expe- 
rience, general  and^special,  past  and  future.  Not  practice,  but 
practiceabilityy  is  responsible  for  the  superior  position  of  such  an 
individual ;  and,  in  broader  aspect,  not  education,  but  educability.* 

•  For  process  of  calculating  correlation  by  the  "foot-rule"  method,  and  for  conver- 
sion table,  see  Whipple's  Manual,  Part  I,  pp.  42-44. 

*  Wells,  F.  L.  The  relation  of  practice  to  individual  differences.  American 
Journal  of  Psychology,  23:75-88. 

Also  see,  Thomdike,  E.  L.  The  effect  of  practice  in  the  case  of  a  purely  intel- 
lectual function.    A  merican  Journal  of  Psychology,  18 :374-384. 

Donovan,  M.  E.  and  Thomdike,  E.  L.  Improvement  in  a  practice  experiment 
imder  school  conditions.    American  Journal  of  Psychology,  24:426-428. 

For  a  complete  treatment  of  the  learning-curve,  see  Thorndike,  E.  L.  Educational 
Psychology,  Volume  II,  The  Psychology  of  Learning;  and  for  the  effect  of  practice  upon 
individual  differences  see  Volume  III  of  the  same  work,  Work  and  Fatigue  and  Indivi- 
dual Differences. 


CHAPTER  VI 

RESULTS  OF  THE  MENTAL  TESTS 

In  this  chapter  will  be  discussed  the  results  of  a  few  of  the  tests^ 
which  were  given  to  the  pupils  of  the  special  room,  as  well  as  to  those 
in  the  control  groups.  The  tests  treated  here  are  more  general  in  their 
nature  than  those  which  were  described  in  Chapter  IV,  and,  being 
psychological  rather  than  educational,  they  show  primarily  differ- 
ences in  native  ability,  rather  than  in  ability  which  has  been  developed 
by  training  in  some  special  line. 

Logical  Memory 

Whipple's  "Marble  Statue  test"^  is  a  test  for  'logical,'  or  'sub- 
stance' memory,  or  what  is  known  as  'memory  for  ideas.'  A  simple 
version  of  the  story  of  Pygmalion  and  Galatea  is  read  to  the  subject, 
who  has  previously  been  warned  to  give  close  attention  in  order  that 
he  may  be  able  to  reproduce  what  he  hears.  The  test  is  scored  on  the 
basis  of  the  number  of  ideas  satisfactorily  reproduced,  rather  than 
upon  an  exact,  verbatim  reproduction  of  the  passage  as  presented. 
The  story  is  made  up  of  67  standard  divisions,  each  one  of  which  con- 
stitutes an  'idea.'  The  reproduction  is  scored  by  comparing  it  with 
the  standard  idea-divisions  of  the  original  passage.  Table  XXXIV 
shows  the  results  of  this  test.  Reproduction  was  begun  immediately 
after  the  passage  had  been  read,  and  the  score  is  expressed  as  the 
number  of  ideas  satisfactorily  reproduced. 

This  test  was  given  in  the  experimental  room  on  October  26,  and 
in  the  other  rooms  on  January  24,  or  three  months  later.  Notwith- 
standing this  handicap  in  time,  tl^e  superiority  of  the  selected  group  is 
clearly  evident.  As  was  the  case  in  the  majority  of  the  educational 
tests,  the  5th-grade  class  of  the  special  room,  in  median  score,  exceeds 
the  total  group  of  6th-grade  pupils. 

^  For  a  fuller  account  of  the  mental  tests,  see  G.  M.  Whipple,  Classes  for  Gifted 
Children,  1919. 

2  Manual  of  Mental  and  Physical  Tests,  Pt.  II. 


90 


NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  11 


TABLE  XXXIV 

Marble  Stattie  Test.    Immediate  Reproduction.    Number  of  Ideas  Reproduced 

NUMBER  OF  PUPILS 

Fifth  Grade 

Sixth  Grade 

Score 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

17-18     .... 



3 
0 
4 
5 
5 
8 
6 
1 
4 
4 
4 
2 
2 
0 
1 
0 
0 
0 

0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
1 
4 
0 
2 
2 
2 
2 
0 
1 
0 
1 
0 
0 

1 
1 
3 
6 
2 
8 
4 
9 
7 
7 
2 
6 
1 
0 
2 
0 
0 
1 

0 

19-20 

0 

21-22 

0 

23-24 

0 

25-26 

0 

27-28     .    .    . 

0 

29-30 

1 

31-32 

2 

33-34 

2 

35-36 

0 

37-38 

1 

39-40 

3 

41^2 

4 

43-44 

1 

45-46 

0 

47-48 

0 

49-50 

0 

51-52 

1 

Sum 

30.30 
30.79 
17-48 

49 

28.75 
29.39 
17-42 

15 

35.50 
35.40 
27-48 

33.10 
32.98 
18-51 

60 

31.50 
31.59 
18-51 

15 

Group: 
Median 

40  30 

Average 

38.53 

Ranee 

30-51 

BoNSER^s  Reasoning  Tests 
In  order  to  compare  ability  in  certain  forms  of  reasoning,  more 
particularly  selective  judgment,  Bonser's  Tests  III,  V,  and  VI  were 
used.  Those  parts  of  Test  III  which  were  given  consist  of  two  sets  of 
ten  sentences  each,  with  a  significant  word  omitted  from  each  to  be 
filled  in  by  the  pupil;  and  two  sets  of  ten  sentences  in  each  of  which 
are  placed,  one  above  the  other,  two  significant  words,  one  of  which 
would  give  an  erroneous  meaning  to  the  sentence  and  is  to  be  crossed 
out  by  the  pupil  so  as  to  make  the  sentence  read  correctly  (Test 
III,  Aa,  Ab,  Ba  and  Bb).  Bonser  says  that  this  test  involves  recogni- 
tion and  selection  on  the  basis  of  fitness  to  purpose  as  the  dominant 
factor,  and  that  the  activity  tested  is  that  of  accuracy  and  spon- 
taneity in  recognizing  resemblances  between  the  known  of  experience 
and  the  unknown  of  new  situations.    Test  V,  A  and  B,  consists  of  two 


RESULTS  OF  MENTAL  TESTS 


91 


series  each  of  ten  reasons  why  some  given  statement  is  true.    Some  of 

these  reasons  are  correct,  others  irrelevant  or  incorrect,  and  the  pupil 

is  to  select  the  correct  ones.    Test  VI  contains  two  sets,  of  three  series 

each  of  definitions  for  a  given  thing  or  term  (some  correct,  others 

incorrect  or  irrelevant)  from  among  which  the  pupil  is  to  select  those 

that  are  correct.    In  giving  these  tests,  as  well  as  in  scoring  them, 

Bonser's  directions  were  observed  precisely.^    The  tests  were  given 

first  in  the  special  room,  and  the  time-limit  for  each  of  the  tests  in  the 

other  rooms  was  fixed  at  the  number  of  seconds  which  it  took  the  first 

pupil  in  the  special  room  to  finish  that  test.    The  following  table  shows 

the  amalgamated  scores  for  all  three  of  the  tests,  i.e.j  the  scores  made 

by  each  pupil  in  the  different  tests,  combined  into  a  single  score  by 

adding. 

TABLE  XXXV 

Bonser^s  Reasoning  Tests;  HI,  V,  and  VI.     Combined  Scores 


NUMBER  OF  PUPILS 

Fifth  Grade 

Sixth  Grade 

Score 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

1-  5 

1 
2 
5 
6 

? 

4 
4 
3 
2 
3 
2 
2 
1 
0 
0 
0 
0 
1 

0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
1 
3 
3 
2 
1 
2 
0 
1 
1 
0 
1 
0 
0 
0 

'.'.'.'.'. 

0 
0 
1 

4 
11 

4 
2 
5 
8 
4 
4 
5 
2 
0 
0 
2 
0 
1 
0 

0 

6-10 

0 

11-15 

0 

16-20 

0 

21-25            .    .    .    . 

0 

26-30     

0 

31-35     

3 

36-40 

0 

41-45 

1 

46-50 

0 

51-55 

4 

56-60     

1 

61-65 

2 

66-70 

0 

71-75 

0 

76-80 

2 

81-85 

1 

86-90 

0 

91-95 

1 

Sum 

45 

30.30 
33.46 
5-91 

15 

43.50 

46.17 

27-76.5 

43.50 
40.28 
13-95 

53 

40.00 
35.02 
13-86 

15 

Group: 
Median 

35.64 
36  64 

55  00 

Average     

58  86 

Range 

5-91 

31.5-95 

'  Bonser,  F.  G.  The  Reasoning  Ability  of  Children  of  the  Fourth,  Fifth,  and  Sixth 
School  Grades.  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University  Contributions  to  Education, 
No.  37,  pp.  3-18. 


92 


NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 


These  tests  were  given  in  the  special  room  on  the  5th,  6th,  and  7th 
of  December,  and  in  the  regular  rooms  a  month  later.  According  to 
the  results,  the  pupils  of  the  special  room  were  distinctly  superior  to 
the  others  in  selective  judgment,  and  it  is  once  more  the  case  that 
the  special  5th  grade  excelled  the  score  of  the  whole  6th-grade  group. 

Equivalent  Proverbs 

Another  of  the  tests  used  was  the  "Equivalent  Proverbs  Test." 
This  test  was  given  in  three  parts,  each  consisting  of  a  series  of  well- 
known  English  proverbs  and  a  series  of  African  or  Arabian  proverbs. 


TABLE  XXXVI 

Equivalent  Proverbs  Test.     Combined  Scores 


NUMBER  OF  PUPILS 

Fifth  Grade 

Sixth  Grade 

Score 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

580-599 

0 
0 
0 
1 
1 
0 
3 
0 
0 
2 
0 
3 
2 
3 
5 
1 
5 
7 
2 
2 
8 
0 
0 

0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
1 
1 
3 
3 
2 
0 
2 
2 
0 

1 
1 
0 
0 
1 
0 
0 
0 
1 
2 
1 
2 
0 
1 
4 
1 
6 
5 
11 
8 
3 
3 
2 

0 

560-579     

0 

420-559     

0 

400-419 

0 

380-399 

0 

360-379 

0 

340-359     

0 

320-339     

0 

300-319 

0 

280-299 

0 

260-279 

0 

240-259     

0 

220-239     

0 

200-219 

0 

180-199 

0 

160-179 

2 

140-159 

120-139     

1 
1 

100-119 

1 

80-99 

0 

60-79 

7 

40-59     .... 

3 

20-39 

0 

Sum 

145.0 

163.4 

419-40.5 

45 

156.0 
177.8 
419-60 

14 

132.4 

117.0 

190.2-40.5 

115.0 

135.6 

576-39.6 

52 

118.60 

148.75 

576-39.6 

15 

Group: 
Median 

72.9 

Average 

90.0 

Range 

177-41.7 

RESULTS  OF  MENTAL  TESTS  93 

arranged  in  parallel  columns.  The  task  was  to  find  for  each  English 
proverb  the  equivalent  proverb  in  the  other  list.  In  some  respects 
this  test  is  similar  to  Bonser's  reasoning  tests,  in  that  it  may  be  said  to 
test  ability  in  seeing  relationships  in  verbal  expressions.  Each  of  the 
three  parts  was  given  separately  to  all  the  rooms  at  practically  the 
same  time,  and  was  scored  by  dividing  the  time  in  seconds  required  to 
finish  it  by  the  number  of  correct  identifications.  The  three  scores  for 
each  pupil  in  this  manner  were  then  added,  to  afford  a  single  final 
score.  Since  each  score  by  this  method  represents  the  time  required 
for  one  correct  solution,  it  will  be  remembered  that  the  higher  figures 
represent  the  lower  scores. 

Because  of  the  wide  range  over  which  these  scores  are  scattered, 
and  the  irregularity  of  their  distribution,  there  is  for  each  grade  a 
considerable  difference  between  the  median  and  the  average.  Each 
of  the  special  grades,  however,  shows  marked  superiority  over  its 
control  group,  and  the  difference  seems  somewhat  greater  in  case  of 
the  6th  grade.  In  that  grade,  however,  two  individuals  in  the  control 
group  succeeded  in  making  better  scores  than  were  made  in  the 
selected  group. 

Word-Building 

Whipple's  "Word-building  Test"^  might  have  been  considered 
among  the  language  tests  discussed  in  Chapter  IV,  for  successful  per- 
formance in  this  test  is  conditioned  to  some  extent  upon  size  and 
readiness  of  vocabulary.  In  addition,  Whipple  says  that  *'it  is  one 
that  calls  for  ingenuity  and  active  attention;  it  might  fairly  be  said  to 
demand  that  ability  to  combine  isolated  fragments  into  a  whole,  which 
Ebbinghaus  has  declared  to  be  the  essence  of  intelligence  and  for  the 
measurement  of  which  he  devised  his  well-known  'completion 
method.'  "  This  test  is  given  in  two  parts,  by  means  of  two  blanks, 
one  of  which  calls  for  the  combining  of  words  from  the  letters  a,  e,  o, 
b,  m,  t;  the  other  from  the  letters  e,  a,  i,  r,  /,  p.  The  aeobmt  blank  is 
given  first,  followed  by  the  eairlp  blank,  and  five  minutes  is  allowed 
for  each.  The  score  of  the  individual's  performance  is  the  sum  of  the 
legitimate  words  formed  from  the  two  lists.  This  test  was  given  to  the 
experimental  room  on  October  24,  and  to  the  other  rooms  about  three 
months  later. 

<  Manual,  Part  II,  pp.  274r-283. 


94 


NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 


TABLE  XXXVII 

Word-Building  Test.     Combined  Scores  of  Both  Lists 


NUMBER  < 

DF  PUPILS 

: 

<  ifth  Gradt 

t 

< 

sixth  Grad( 

Score 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

Total 

Control 

Selected 

2-3 



1 
1 
0 
0 
1 
7 
5 
6 
4 
6 
5 
4 
2 
1 
1 
3 
0 
0 

0 
0 
0 
1 
1 
0 
1 
2 
0 
1 
2 
1 
3 
2 
0 
0 
0 
0 



0 
0 
0 
2 
0 
2 
7 
5 
7 
7 
3 
10 
2 
6 
3 
1 
1 
0 

0 

4r-  5 

0 

6-7 

0 

8-9 

0 

IQ-U 

1 

12-13 

1 

14-15                    .    . 

0 

16-17     

0 

18-19  

2 

20-21 

0 

22-23 

1 

24-25     

2 

26-27 

4 

28-29 

1 

30-31 

0 

32-33                    .    . 

1 

34-35 

1 

36-37 

1 

Sum 

20.29 
19.50 
2-33 

47 

18.62 
19.06 
2-33 

14 

22.5 
21.0 
9-29 

22.40 
22.14 
9-37 

56 

21.57 
21.27 
9-34 

15 

Group: 
Median 

26  50 

Average 

24  70 

Range 

10-37 

With  this  test,  as  with  the  preceding  one,  the  special  6th-grade 
class  shows  a  somewhat  larger  difference  in  its  favor  than  does  the 
special  5th-grade.  If  we  take  into  account  the  difference  in  time,  it 
seems  fair  to  say  that  the  special  5th  grade  shows  a  median  and  an 
average  score  practically  equal  to  that  of  the  whole  6th  grade;  espe- 
cially so  since  the  percentile  curves  of  word-building  published  by 
Whipple  show  that,  at  the  age  of  these  pupils,  the  growth  for  three 
months  in  ability  in  this  test,  as  measured  by  the  median  score,  is 
approximately  one  word.  When  this  correction  is  applied  to  the 
median  and  average  scores  of  the  control  groups,  the  superiority  of  the 
selected  group  is  more  clearly  revealed.  It  is  true,  however,  that  four 
individuals  in  the  5th-grade  control  group  made  a  higher  score  than 
was  made  by  any  member  of  the  special  class  in  the  same  grade. 


RESULTS  OF  MENTAL  TESTS  95 

Summary 

The  results  of  the  tests  described  in  this  chapter  go  to  show  that 
bright  children  excel  ordinary  ones  in  such  things  as  logical  memory 
and  selective  judgment,  as  well  as  in  performance  in  the  school  sub- 
jects, as  was  shown  in  Chapter  IV.  In  other  words,  the  differences 
between  the  top  tenth  of  the  children  in  the  middle  grades  and  the  rest 
of  the  children  in  those  grades,  are  differences  which  to  a  great  extent 
depend  upon  heredity,  rather  than  upon  training.  The  same  thing  is 
indicated  by  the  results  of  the  practice  test  discussed  in  the  preceding 
chapter,  as  well  as  by  those  of  a  great  number  of  other  mental  tests 
which  were  given  throughout  the  year,  but  which  it  has  not  been 
thought  necessary  to  discuss,  inasmuch  as  a  complete  description  of 
them  has  been  published  elsewhere.  The  evidence  of  all  the  tests 
strongly  suggests  that  the  intellectual  differences  between  bright  and 
mediocre  children  are  of  such  an  amount  that  they  practically  may  be 
considered  qualitative  as  well.  At  any  rate  the  results  of  the  tests 
indicate  that  gifted  children  have  mental  powers  which  are  sufficiently 
different  from  those  of  average  children  to  make  it  probable  that 
the  pedagogy  of  gifted  children  must  include  a  special  adaptation  of 
method  to  their  peculiar  needs.  The  nature  of  this  adaptation  will 
be  made  the  subject  of  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER  VII 

METHODS  OF  TEACHING  AS  ADAPTED  TO  THE 
INSTRUCTION  OF  GIFTED  CHILDREN 

While  we  have  a  few  accounts  of  the  operation  of  special  classes  for 
gifted  children,  almost  nothing  has  been  said  concerning  the  special 
pedagogy  of  such  classes.  It  would  seem  that  this  phase  of  the  work 
has  so  far  received  but  little  attention  in  comparison  with  that  which 
has  been  given  to  plans  for  organization,  suggestions  for  programs  of 
study,  and  discussions  of  the  special  aims  to  be  attained  by  segrega- 
ting the  brighter  pupils.  Very  much  more,  too,  has  been  written  about 
the  results  which  have  been  obtained  in  such  rooms  than  about  the 
methods  by  which  those  results  were  secured.  This  chapter  will  be 
devoted  to  a  discussion  of  such  modifications  of  teaching-method  as 
seem  advisable  in  the  conduct  of  a  special  room,  or  class,  for  children 
of  better  than  normal  ability.  Its  conclusions  are  based  upon  the 
results  of  plans  which  were  definitely  tried  out  in  the  experimental 
room,  observation  of  three  other  special  rooms  for  superior  children, 
conferences  with  a  few  teachers  of  such  rooms,  and  correspondence 
with  supervising  officers  and  teachers  having  such  rooms  in  charge. 

Of  the  few  studies  of  this  particular  problem  which  are  available, 
one  grew  out  of  the  work  of  the  special  room  established  in  Cin- 
cinnati in  1910,^  and  was  reported  by  Miss  Flora  Unrich,  who  had  the 
room  in  her  care.  Miss  Unrich  says  in  her  article  that  soon  after 
entering  upon  her  work  with  these  pupils  she  took  an  inventory  of 
their  mental  equipments  and  characteristics,  their  strengths  and 
their  weaknesses,  and  concluded  that  the  qualities  which  she  needed 
to  implant  in  them  were  self-control,  self -helpfulness  (adaptability), 
concentration,  and  continuity.  She  attempted,  then,  to  develop 
self-helpfulness  by  doing  nothing  for  a  child  which  he  could  do  for 
himself;  and  to  develop  accuracy,  thoroughness,  and  continuity  by 

» See  Chapter  H. 

96 


METHODS  ADAPTED  TO  GIFTED  CHILDREN  97 

not  allowing  her  pupils  to  do  anything  in  a  desultory  way,  or  to  leave 
anything  unfinished.  For  training  in  concentration  she  gave  them 
practice  in  doing  work  while  recitations  were  going  on.  In  conse- 
quence of  this  treatment,  as  she  says,  her  pupils  developed  in  power 
to  concentrate,  to  select  (form  judgments),  and  to  examine  them- 
selves, as  well  as  in  will  to  finish  what  they  had  once  begun.  In  order 
that  these  pupils  might  have  no  opportunity  to  form  habits  of  indo- 
lence, whenever  any  assigned  task  had  proved  too  easy  they  were  at 
once  provided  with  additional  material  difficult  enough  to  enlist  a 
deeper  interest  and  call  out  greater  efforts.  Of  the  32  pupils  who 
were  enrolled  in  this  room,  25  accomplished  two  years  of  work  during 
the  year  it  was  in  session.  This  gain,  says  Miss  Unrich,  was  made 
possible  "by  avoiding  all  mechanical  teaching,  appealing  to  the 
reason  and  judgment  of  the  pupils,  reducing  all  drill  to  a  minimum, 
studying  carefully  in  advance  the  entire  year's  course,  and  selecting 
kindred  facts  and  subjects.  This  made  much  correlation  possible, 
and  prevented  dissipation  and  side-tracking  of  the  pupils'  energies, 
by  presenting  such  material  when  it  could  be  effectively  assimilated." 
Other  features  which  were  stressed  are  free  and  independent  expres- 
sion, power  of  initiative,  careful  self-censorship,  conscientious  effort, 
confidence  placed  in  the  pupils  and  understood  by  them  to  be  met  in 
only  one  way,  individualization  of  instruction,  and  adjustment  of  the 
work  to  individual  needs.^ 

An  interesting  article  by  Dr.  Martha  Adler  describes  an  attempt 
to  adapt  methods  of  instruction  to  bright  pupils  which  was  made  in 
Public  School  77,  New  York  City.  The  premise  underlying  the  exper- 
iment was  that  "pupils  of  advanced  intelUgence  should  not  only  make 
more  rapid  progress  than  those  of  younger  mental  age,  but  that 
methods  of  instruction  should  be  adapted  to  mental  maturity." 
Seventy  Ist-grade  boys,  about  to  begin  the  second  half  of  the  1st- 
grade  work,  were  tested  by  Goddard's  1911  Revision  of  the  Binet 
Scale.  The  35  boys  who  tested  highest  were  placed  in  Class  A,  or  the 
advanced  section;  and  the  others  were  assigned  to  Class  B,  the  regular 
section.  In  describing  the  work  of  these  two  sections,  Dr.  Adler 
says: 

2  Unrich,  Flora.    A  year's  work  in  a  "superior"  class.     Psychological  Clinic j 
f.     5:  January,  1912,  245-250. 


98  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 

'*In  each  class  progress  was  made  at  a  rate  commensurate 
with  the  abilities  of  the  children.  In  Class  A,  particular  super- 
vision was  given  to  the  instruction  in  reading  and  in  the  writing 
of  phonetic  elements  leading  to  spelling,  the  purpose  being  to 
replace,  at  an  early  stage,  low-grade  by  high-grade  habits. 
Audible  lip-preparation  of  new  reading-matter  and  pointing  to 
the  words  with  the  fingers  are  usually  permitted  with  young 
pupils.  Silent  reading,  with  eye-recognition  of  the  words  was 
substituted  at  an  early  stage.  Rapid  reading  and  thought- 
getting  were  secured  by  various  devices,  and  a  maturity  in 
development  was  noted  which  is  not  customary  with  young 
pupils.  The  synthetic  method  of  writing  phonograms  usually 
precedes  the  analytic  resolution  into  the  letter  elements  by  a 
considerable  period.  In  the  present  instance,  it  was  possible 
to  combine  these  methods  at  a  much  earlier  time  than  is  cus- 
tomary. In  the  work  in  arithmetic  it  was  noted  that  a  much 
shorter  period  was  needed  by  the  pupils  for  objective  work, 
and  it  was  not  a  diflficult  task  for  them  to  acquire  the  more 
advanced  work." 

In  the  same  school,  out  of  a  class  of  eighty-nine  4th-grade  boys  were 
selected  the  36  who  made  the  best  showing  in  a  selected  list  of  mental 
tests.  These  were  placed  in  a  special  section  and  their  teacher  was 
told  to  advance  at  a  rate  commensurate  with  their  abilities.  Concern- 
ing the  methods  used  in  this  advanced  section,  the  author  of  the 
study  says: 

"In  the  advanced  section  special  effort  was  made  to  engender 
the  higher  habits  of  independent  study;  the  selection  of  the 
main  thought  of  a  paragraph  or  page,  the  organization  of  minor 
details  around  larger  topics,  and  the  cultivation  of  initiative  in 
the  use  of  a  textbook  and  other  aids  to  study  were  particularly 
emphasized.  Combining  the  work  of  the  latter  half  of  the 
fourth  grade  with  that  of  the  first  half  of  the  fifth  was  success- 
fully done  by  the  teacher."^ 

A  teacher  in  one  of  the  'preparatory  centers'  of  Baltimore  in  speak- 
ing of  the  methods  used  in  her  classes  and  in  the  school  in  general,  says 
that  one  of  the  chief  aims  is  that  the  pupils  develop  habits  of  prompt- 
ness and  concentration  and  a  general  ideal  of  self-reliance,  and  that 
concentrated  attention  for  a  short  time  makes  for  rapid  progress. 
Certain  specific  helps  are  provided  in  teaching  children  how  to  study, 

« Adler,  Martha.  Mental  tests  used  as  a  basis  for  the  classification  of  school 
children.    Jour,  of  Educ.  Psych.,  5:  January,  1914,  22-28. 


METHODS  ADAPTED  TO  GIFTED  CHILDREN  99 

for  example,  study  periods  in  school,  even  when  not  assigned  by  the 
schedule,  that  teachers  may  see  which  children  lack  power  of  concen- 
tration and  give  helpful  suggestions  to  them.  The  pupils  are 
encouraged  to  ask  questions  about  their  individual  difficulties  only 
after  they  have  made  a  real  effort  to  solve  them,  and  spontaneous 
effort  at  accomplishment  and  comprehension  is  looked  upon  as  much 
more  valuable  than  what  is  done  at  the  teacher's  detailed  direction.* 
With  this  reference  to  the  opinions  expressed  in  educational  litera- 
ture as  an  introduction,  we  may  undertake  a  more  detailed  considera- 
tion of  the  adaptation  of  method  to  the  distinctive  needs  of  supernor- 
mal children.  So  closely,  however,  is  the  question  of  method 
connected  with  that  of  the  characteristics  of  the  teacher  that  we  are 
perhaps  justified  in  delaying  the  main  issue  for  a  moment  in  order  to 
make  way  for  some  consideration  of  the  qualities  which  should  be 
sought  for  in  choosing  a  teacher  for  a  special  room  of  gifted  children. 

The  Teacher 

It  is  but  expressing  a  truism  to  say  that  the  most  retarded  pupils 
are  those  who  are  naturally  brightest.  Almost  any  teacher  who  is 
possessed  of  the  requisite  amount  of  patience  can  develop  a  dull 
pupil  to  a  level  relatively  near  the  limit  of  his  ability,  but  teachers  who 
do  not  at  times  retard  the  brightest  members  of  their  classes  are  rare. 
Efficient  teaching  is  absolutely  necessary  if  the  ablest  pupils  are  to 
make  full  use  of  their  powers.  Again,  any  marked  departure  from 
the  usual  program  is  likely  to  fail  unless  the  teacher  or  other  authority 
who  has  it  in  charge  is  forceful  and  intelligent,  and  able  to  command 
the  respect,  not  only  of  the  pupils  but  also  of  the  patronizing  com- 
munity in  general;  and  under  present  conditions  a  special  room  for 
gifted  children  represents  such  a  departure. 

Efficiency  in  teaching  depends  upon  broad  scholarship,  adequate 
preparation,  and  strong  personality,  all  of  which  are  of  prime  impor- 
tance for  the  kind  of  work  which  we  are  considering.  The  teacher, 
in  order  to  be  successful  in  instructing  very  bright  children,  must  be 
well-grounded  in  educational  theory  and  professional  knowledge. 
She  must  know  how  to  adapt  her  instruction  to  the  varying  needs  of 

*  Patterson,  M.  Rose.  A  preparatory  center  in  Baltimore;  William  Rhinehart 
School  No.  52.    Atlantic  Educ.  Jour.,  12:  January,  1917,  234-238. 


100  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 

her  pupils.  She  must  be  able  to  work  out  a  definite  lesson  plan,  in 
order  that  both  she  and  the  pupils  may  have  an  exact  understanding 
of  just  what  is  to  be  done,  and  waste  no  time  in  aimless  floundering. 
She  must  have  the  ability  to  discern  relative  values  and  to  lift 
important  topics  into  prominence  from  the  mass  of  details.  No 
matter  how  much  experience  she  may  have  had,  she  must  still  preserve 
the  experimental  attitude  and  be  capable  of  noticing  wherein  her 
methods  must  differ  from  those  which  she  would  use  under  ordinary 
circumstances;  and  must  remember  that  many  of  the  conventional 
ideas  of  method  and  technique  that  obtain  in  ordinary  teaching  do 
not  apply  to  gifted  children  in  a  special  room,  especially  since  their 
initiative  is  so  marked.  In  a  word,  she  must  have  so  profited  by 
professional  training  as  to  make  it  possible  for  her  to  recognize  the 
special  pedagogical  and  psychological  problems  connected  with  her 
work. 

The  wealth  of  associations  which  bright  children  possess,  and  their 
quickness  in  forming  others,  are  features  which  often  make  them  a 
source  of  real  difficulty  in  ordinary  schoolrooms  and  for  ordinary 
teachers.  The  teacher  in  the  special  room  for  such  children,  if  she  is 
to  command  the  respect  of  her  pupils  or  cause  them  to  work  up  to  the 
limit  of  their  powers,  must  have  had  a  broad  general  training  and  a 
wide  range  of  information.  So  far  as  the  children  in  our  experimental 
room  were  concerned,  they  did  a  great  deal  of  outside  reading,  much  of 
which  was  more  mature  in  character  than  the  reading  of  ordinary 
children  of  the  same  age.  This  resulted  in  the  asking  of  a  great  many 
questions,  which  covered  a  broad  field.  Of  course,  it  is  hardly  possible 
that  even  the  best-informed  teacher  would  be  able  to  dispose  of  all 
the  questions  brought  to  her  by  a  score  of  very  bright  children,  but 
she  should  be  able  to  answer  a  reasonable  number  of  them  and  should 
know  where  to  look  for  information  to  answer  most  of  the  remainder. 

No  less  important  is  the  matter  of  personality.  To  choose  a 
teacher  for  capable  children  on  the  basis  of  scholarship  alone,  placing 
them  in  charge  of  a  normal-school  or  college  graduate  of  weak  per- 
sonality and  slender  teaching  resources  is  to  invite  disaster.  In  order 
to  develop  the  powers  of  gifted  children  to  their  fullest  capacity, 
the  teacher  of  those  children  must  possess  an  individuality  strong 
enough  to  challenge  those  powers.  Energy  and  enthusiasm  on  the 
part  of  the  teacher  are  needed  in  any  schoolroom,  but  nowhere  are 


METHODS  ADAPTED  TO  GIFTED  CHILDREN        '    '  '  '  tOl- 

they  so  much  needed  as  in  the  education  of  bright  children.  A  lack  of 
them  makes  the  development  of  self-reliance,  industry,  and  initiative 
among  the  pupils  almost  an  impossibility. 

The  qualities  which  have  been  discussed  above  are,  it  must  be 
admitted,  precisely  those  qualities  which  make  for  good  teaching  in 
any  room,  special  or  regular.  So  far  as  these  factors  go,  none  of  them 
is  the  exclusive  property  of  the  teacher  of  capable  pupils.  The  point 
that  is  made  here,  however,  is  that  gifted  children  require  an  especially 
strong  teacher — one  who  ranks  high  in  scholarship,  preparation,  and 
personality — and  that,  whereas  a  teacher  of  lower  rank  in  any  of  these 
particulars  might  do  very  well  in  an  ordinary  room,  she  would  not  be 
capable  of  securing  adequate  results  in  a  room  such  as  that  upon 
which  this  study  is  based. 

Method 
What  is  true  of  the  teacher  is  also  true  of  method  of  the  special 
room.  None  of  the  methods  which  are  to  be  described  could  be  said 
at  all  times  to  be  out  of  place  in  an  ordinary  schoolroom;  but  it  is  true 
that  some  methods,  more  than  others,  must  characterize  the  instruc- 
tion of  supernormal  children,  while  other  methods  must  receive  more 
emphasis  than  would  be  placed  upon  them  in  teaching  ordinary  chil- 
dren in  regular  rooms. 

The  most  common  modification  of  method  which  was  reported 
in  my  correspondence  with  supervising  officers  and  teachers  of  special 
rooms  for  gifted  children,  is  a  reduction  in  the  amount  of  drill.  To  the 
question  on  this  point  answers  were  secured  from  20  persons  actually 
engaged  in  supervising,  or  giving  instruction  to,  such  rooms  or 
classes.  In  all  but  four  instances  there  was  reported  a  marked 
decrease  in  the  amount  and  relative  importance  of  drill-work,  as 
compared  with  ordinary  schoolroom  procedure.  Two  of  these  four 
exceptions  came  from  special  teachers  of  arithmetic,  one  from  a 
teacher  of  grammar,  and  one  from  a  room-teacher  giving  instruction 
in  all  the  common  branches.  Eleven  teachers  reported  a  lessening 
of  drill  in  all  subjects;  history  received  specific  mention  three  times  in 
this  connection;  geography,  spelling,  and  arithmetic  were  each 
mentioned  twice;  bookkeeping  once,  and  "memory-work"  once.  The 
most  common  estimate  of  the  amount  of  this  decrease  was  50  per  cent. 
A  few  put  it  at  one  third  or  one  fourth,  but  the  typical  answer  was  "50 
per  cent  in  all  subjects."    One  departmental  teacher  of  arithmetic, 


102  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 

who  teaches  both  a  bright  group  and  an  average  group,  reported 
that  for  some  time  she  had  been  making  a  careful  study  of  this 
particular  question,  and  had  been  keeping  a  record  of  the  drill-time  in 
each  of  the  two  groups.  As  a  result,  she  found  that  the  time  spent  in 
drill  with  the  bright  class  was  just  48  per  cent  of  that  in  the  ordinary 
class. 

A  priorif  since  gifted  children  grasp  principles  and  concepts  more 
quickly  than  ordinary  children  do,  not  so  much  drill  is  necessary  in 
their  education  as  in  that  of  children  of  ordinary  ability.  While 
gifted  children  must  have  a  certain  amount  of  drill  in  the  skill  sub- 
jects, care  must  be  taken  that  they  are  not  required  to  drudge  through 
long  lists  of  grammatical  or  arithmetical  exercises  in  order  to  'fasten* 
principles  which  are  already  well  understood  and  known  by  them. 
The  very  fact  that  the  bright  child  is  quicker  to  see  things  than  other 
children  are,  goes  to  indicate  that  he  needs  less  drill  than  they  do. 
Experimental  evidence  is  at  hand  to  show  that  practice  increases 
differences  in  performance  (see  Chapter  V),  and  it  is  a  corollary  to 
this  that  practice  is  more  efficient  in  the  case  of  able  children,  and 
hence  less  of  it  is  needed  to  attain  any  set  standard. 

One  of  the  teachers  who  had  charge  of  a  5th-grade  class  from 
which  a  number  of  the  brightest  pupils  had  been  selected  for  the 
experimental  room,  and  who  kept  the  same  class  as  a  6th  grade  the 
next  year,  remarked  to  the  author  that  the  removal  of  these  pupils 
had  made  much  more  drill  necessary  in  her  room.  Similar  opinions 
were  expressed  by  the  other  5th-grade  and  6th-grade  teachers  whose 
best  pupils  had  been  transferred  to  the  special  room.  Obviously  this 
indicates  that  under  ordinary  circumstances  teachers  are  misled  by 
the  performance  of  bright  pupils  and  give  less  drill  than  ordinary  chil- 
dren need ;  or,  if  they  spend  time  for  the  drill  which  is  needed  by  aver- 
age and  dull  children  they  waste  the  bright  pupils'  time.  All  in  all, 
the  evidence  goes  to  show  that  the  practice  of  greatly  reducing  the 
amount  of  drill,  which  is  shown  above  to  obtain  quite  generally  in  the 
instruction  of  gifted  children,  is  readily  justified. 

Formal  review  is  only  another  form  of  drill,  and  what  has  been  said 
in  the  discussion  of  drill  will  apply  to  review  also.  In  the  ordinary 
schoolroom  it  quite  often  happens  that  the  teacher  will  resort  to  a 
period  of  drill,  or  to  a  formal  review,  simply  for  the  purpose  of  filling 
up  time  which  otherwise  she  would  not  know  what  to  do  with.    The 


METHODS  ADAPTED  TO  GIFTED  CHILDREN  103 

author's  experience  in  observing,  and  teaching  in,  the  special  room 
convinced  him  that  for  such  children  the  most  efficient  kind  of  drill  is  a 
short  and  very  intensive  one,  and  that  there  should  be  rather  frequent 
reviews  of  that  character,  instead  of  less  frequent,  more  formal,  and 
longer  ones.  In  such  a  room  neither  drill  nor  review  should  be  given 
unless  at  a  suitable  time,  for  a  clearly  understood  reason,  and  after 
careful  planning,  and  never  for  the  purpose  of  simply  using  up  time; 
and  as  less  drill  is  necessary  for  gifted  children,  so  also  is  less  review 
needful. 

Aside  from  decreasing  the  amount  of  review  and  drill,  the  most  fre- 
quently reported  change  in  method  is  a  lessened  amount  of  explanation^ 
including  lessened  attention  to  detail  in  the  development  of  a  new 
topic.  This  was  mentioned  as  a  leading  feature  in  the  adaptation  of 
method  by  12  out  of  21  persons  from  whom  information  was  obtained. 
The  following  is  a  typical  statement:  ''Explanation  doesn't  have  to  be 
entered  into  so  minutely,  or  have  to  be  repeated  as  with  ordinary 
pupils.  They  grasped  so  much  more  quickly  that  time  was  saved 
thereby."  Said  another:  "They  get  it  at  one  'exposure.'  "  One 
teacher  estimated  that  bright  pupils  require  from  a  third  to  a  half  the 
amount  of  explanation  necessary  in  teaching  ordinary  ones,  and 
another  expressed  the  figure  as  55  per  cent. 

Since  one  of  the  chief  purposes  in  the  establishment  of  special  rooms 
for  gifted  children  is  that  they  be  given  the  opportunity  to  work  as 
diligently  as  ordinary  children  have  to  work  to  get  their  tasks  accom- 
plished, it  will  be  readily  seen  that  too  much  explanation  on  the  part  of 
the  teacher  would  defeat  one  of  the  chief  aims  of  such  a  room.  Again, 
if  the  program  of  the  special  room  involves  a  saving  in  time,  economy 
in  teaching  must  be  featured,  as  well  as  economy  in  learning.  Any 
time,  then,  which  is  spent  by  the  teacher  in  explaining  what  is  already 
perfectly  known  by  the  pupils  or  in  considering  details  which  are  of  no 
importance  or  which  could  easily  be  worked  out  by  the  pupils  them- 
selves, contributes  to  the  defeat  of  another  important  aim. 

A  common  form  of  over-explanation  consists  in  giving  too  much 
attention  to  illustration.  The  danger  of  this,  even  in  an  ordinary  room, 
has  been  so  well  pointed  out  by  Professor  Adams  that  I  cannot  forbear 
quoting  the  following  paragraph  from  one  of  his  works,^  especially 
since  it  so  well  applies  to  the  teaching  of  bright  children : 

^  Adams,  J.    Exposition  and  Illustration  in  Teaching,  p.  395. 


104  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  U 

".  .  .  There  is  the  danger  of  over-illustration.  Some 
teachers  seem  to  regard  it  as  an  established  principle  that  every 
point  that  arises  must  be  illustrated,  whether  it  offers  any  dif- 
ficulty or  not.  What  is  perfectly  clear  already  needs  no  illus- 
tration as  a  matter  of  exposition.  A  straightforward  statement 
of  fact  dealing  with  elements  that  come  well  within  the  pupil's 
range  should  not  be  illustrated,  so  long  as  the  teacher's  purpose 
at  the  time  is  only  to  get  the  pupil  to  understand.  Indeed,  it  is 
possible  that  by  illustrating  what  requires  no  illustration  the 
teacher  may  cause  needless  difficulties  to  arise,  especially  in  the 
minds  of  the  more  eager  and  attentive  pupils.  Accustomed  to 
attach  a  meaning  to  all  that  the  teacher  says,  such  pupils  are 
apt  to  think  that  since  he  makes  so  much  of  the  point  he  is 
laboring,  there  must  be  something  in  it  which  they  do  not  yet 
perceive,  and  they  may  grope  about  for  a  meaning  that  is  not 
there." 

A  mistake  which  is  very  likely  to  be  made  by  the  teacher  who  is 
placed  in  charge  of  a  room  of  gifted  pupils  for  the  first  time,  is  to  forget 
the  relative  importance  of  details.  This  often  occurs  because  the  teach- 
er, finding  her  pupils  able  to  assimilate  a  great  variety  of  facts  in  a 
comparatively  short  space  of  time  and  seeing  great  possibilities  in  the 
direction  of  thoroughness,  is  carried  away  by  that  as  an  ideal,  and  in 
her  enthusiasm  expects  her  pupils  to  master  every  detail  which  she 
places  before  them  or  which  is  found  in  their  textbooks,  without 
regard  to  the  relative  value  of  those  details.  This  results  in  a  waste  of 
time  and  a  dissipation  of  energy.  Successful  teaching  in  a  special 
room  for  bright  children  must  take  into  account  the  relative  impor- 
tance of  the  different  topics  and  make  a  proportionate  division  of 
time.  Instead  of  an  encyclopedic  treatment  of  the  content  subjects, 
there  should  be  an  intensive  study  of  the  main  topics,  supported  by 
many  of  the  details  as  secondary.  In  mastering  the  main  topics, 
bright  students  will  acquire  most  of  the  important  details  spontan- 
eously, but  the  teacher  must  be  able  to  distinguish  between  first-rate 
and  tenth-rate  facts  in  making  her  assignments  and  drawing  up  her 
lesson-plans. 

Another  prominent  feature  of  method  as  adapted  to  gifted  chil- 
dren, is  provision  for  the  development  of  initiative,  self -reliance,  and  free 
expression.  These  characteristics,  of  course,  have  their  place  in  the 
ordinary  schoolroom,  but  it  is  in  a  room  of  the  type  which  we  are 
describing  that  they  are  capable  of  their  fullest  development  and  must 


METHODS  ADAPTED  TO  GIFTED  CHILDREN  105 

receive  the  greatest  emphasis.  Many  of  the  teachers  with  whom  I 
have  corresponded  have  mentioned  the  use  of  these  traits,  and  some 
have  furnished  me  with  concrete  examples  of  how  they  have  been 
enabled  to  develop  a  spirit  of  self-reliance  in  their  pupils  and  to  make 
it  contribute  to  the  work  of  the  school.  Thus  one  says:  **The  children 
are  required  to  get  information  for  themselves  through  silent  reading 
more  than  ordinary  children  of  this  grade  (4b),  and  emphasis  is  placed 
upon  their  ability  to  discuss  what  they  have  read."  Another  says: 
''The  children  take  more  initiative.  They  use  the  material  we  have  at 
hand  more  freely."  Another:  ''Far  less  explaining  is  necessary,  for 
these  children  are  able  to  help  themselves  and  they  often  work  out  new 
subjects  in  grammar  and  arithmetic.  This  is  the  most  successful 
side  of  my  work." 

The  following  paragraph  is  quoted  from  the  letter  of  a  teacher  of  a 
special  room  for  bright  children  in  the  Bigelow  School,  of  Boston. 

"In  presenting  a  subject  I  have  been  able  to  dispense  with 
detailed  explanations  which  I  have  found  necessary  in  regular 
grade  work.  The  children  are  quick  to  grasp  a  new  idea,  and  to 
apply  previously  taught  principles.  Also  the  children  do  more, 
and  I  less,  of  the  work  than  is  possible  in  a  regular  grade.  For 
instance,  in  the  matter  of  history — after  the  children  have  been 
trained  how  to  study,  I  assign  a  subject.  The  child  studies  the 
subject  as  a  whole,  selects  what  to  him  are  the  essentials,  and 
presents  them  to  the  class.  He  must  have  reasons  for  his 
selection,  and  knowledge  enough  to  answer  any  question. 
Dependence  on  self  is  the  thing  we  strive  to  cultivate."^ 

One  of  the  best  examples  of  the  development  of  initiative  on  the 
part  of  school  children  that  has  come  under  the  author's  immediate 
observation  was  in  the  "opportunity  class"  under  the  care  of  Miss 
Jessie  B.  Marshall,  of  the  Louisville,  Kentucky,  Normal  School.  This 
class,  which  has  been  described  in  an  earlier  part  of  this  study,^  was 
composed  of  very  bright  children  from  the  fourth  grade.  In  a  geogra- 
phy lesson  upon  the  hard- wood  lumber  industry  of  Kentucky,  one  of 
the  boys  took  a  pointer,  went  to  the  map,  and  gave  a  very  well- 
planned  and  coherent  discussion  of  the  hard-wood  timber  region  of 
Kentucky,   the  different   varieties   of  trees  found  there,   and  the 

•  Letter  from  Miss  S.  H.  Lynch,  Bigelow  School,  Boston. 
'  See  Chapter  II. 


106  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 

methods  of  putting  the  lumber  upon  the  market.  Opportunity  was 
given  to  the  class  to  ask  him  questions,  most  of  which  were  promptly 
answered.  At  the  conclusion  of  his  discussion,  he  took  charge  of  the 
class,  asking  them  questions  connected  with  the  day's  lesson,  so  that 
to  all  intents  and  purposes  he  taught  that  lesson  to  his  fellow-pupils. 
The  same  method  was  used  in  an  arithmetic  class,  where  another  boy, 
who  had  been  previously  appointed  for  that  purpose,  dictated  original 
problems  to  the  class,  oversaw  their  solution,  corrected  the  mistakes, 
and  gave  help  to  such  members  of  the  class  as  seemed  to  be  in  need 
of  it. 
'  These  three  things — lessened  drill,  lessened  explanation,  and  aug- 
,  mented  initiative — according  to  the  reports  which  I  have  received,  are 
the  most  prominent  features  of  method  as  adapted  to  the  peculiar 
situation  of  a  special  room  for  gifted  children.  In  addition  to  these 
there  are  at  least  two  other  important  principles  which  have  been 
mentioned  by  a  few  teachers,  and  which  have  been  made  use  of  in  our 
own  experimental  room. 

The  first  of  these,  for  lack  of  a  better  name,  I  shall  call  the  '^ princi- 
ple of  application j'^  meaning  by  that  the  endeavor  to  encourage  the 
pupils  in  all  possible  ways  to  make  use  of  the  knowledge  already 
acquired  by  them,  in  the  acquisition  of  more  knowledge.  In  my 
experience  in  teaching  these  children,  I  found  the  step  of  'application' 
following  the  development  of  a  principle,  a  very  easy  one  for  them  to 
make,  and  they  were  encouraged  to  apply  each  principle  to  as  wide  a 
field  as  possible.  When  it  could  be  done,  arithmetical  principles  were 
taught  as  closely  as  possible  in  connection  with  their  applications.  To 
illustrate,  in  the  textbook  which  was  used  in  arithmetic  in  the  5th 
grade,  cancellation  was  treated  as  a  separate  topic,  having  a  section 
devoted  to  an  explanation  of  the  principle  involved  and  a  list  of  prob- 
lems for  drill.  But  before  this  section  of  the  textbook  had  been 
reached,  opportunity  was  seen  for  the  introduction  of  cancellation, 
and  it  was  explained  to  the  class,  somewhat  casually  at  first,  as  a 
method  of  saving  time  in  connection  with  a  certain  problem.  This 
process  was  repeated,  until  after  the  class  had  seen  the  method  used  a 
few  times  they  were  perfectly  able  to  use  it  for  themselves,  and  conse- 
quently it  was  possible  to  omit  almost  all  of  the  section  of  the  textbook 
which  was  devoted  to  that  subject.  To  make  sure  that  the  children 
are  making  use  of  the  knowledge  which  they  have,  the  teacher  should 


METHODS  ADAPTED  TO  GIFTED  CHILDREN  107 

allow  the  pupils  to  tell  what  they  know  about  the  subject  under  dis- 
cussion, even  if  they  go  into  details  which  are  in  advance  of  the  lesson 
for  the  day.  The  conventional  treatment  of  the  child  who  "goes 
ahead  of  the  lesson"  in  his  recitation  is  to  restrain  him.  It  has  been 
our  experience,  however,  that  much  advantage  is  secured  by  allowing 
children  to  anticipate  advance  matter  in  this  way.  It  prevents  waste 
of  time  later  in  teaching  the  children  what  they  already  know,  and  it 
gives  the  teacher  opportunity  to  discover  what  connections  already 
formed  in  the  child's  mind  are  available  as  means  of  approach  to  new 
material. 

Another  feature  of  the  instruction  in  the  experimental  room  has 
been  the  conscious  effort  to  teach  as  much  as  possible  hy  principles 
instead  of  by  more  or  less  detached  facts.  For  instance,  the  5th-grade 
textbook  in  geography  treated  the  difference  in  rainfall  on  the  sides  of 
the  Coast  Ranges  of  the  western  United  States  by  simply  mentioning 
the  fact,  without  explaining  the  principle  of  the  loss  of  moisture  dur- 
ing the  passage  of  clouds  from  the  sea  over  a  mountain  range.  This 
principle  was,  however,  developed  by  the  class,  so  that  a  few  weeks 
later,  when  the  geography  of  the  Amazon  valley  was  being  studied,  the 
class  was  able  to  deduce  the  direction  of  the  prevailing  winds  from  the 
text's  simple  statement  of  the  difference  in  rainfall  on  the  sides  of  the 
Andes.  Similar  methods  were  used  in  physiology,  and,  indeed, 
wherever  possible. 

In  addition  to  what  has  already  been  said  concerning  special 
adaptations  of  method  in  the  experimental  room,  a  few  other  features 
may  be  mentioned.  There  was  a  persistent  attempt  to  take  into 
account  the  relative  importance  of  the  different  topics  and  portions 
of  subject  matter  and  to  make  a  corresponding  distribution  of  time 
and  emphasis  among  them.  Perhaps  the  greatest  saving  of  time  has 
been  effected  by  the  quickness  with  which  the  children  learn,  which 
has  made  it  possible  to  dispense  with  the  long  explanations  that  would 
otherwise  be  necessary.  There  was  a  persistent  attempt,  therefore,  to 
get  at  the  root  of  the  matter  as  quickly  as  possible,  without  wasting 
any  time  in  needless  explanation.  When  it  was  found,  as  it  often  was, 
that  the  pupils  were  already  perfectly  familiar  with  a  principle  for 
whose  development  the  course  of  study  or  the  textbook  provided  an 
extended   amount   of   formal   drill,    the   drill   was   correspondingly 


108  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  11 

shortened.  Again,  it  was  often  discovered  that  the  children  already 
knew  enough  about  an  advance  topic  to  render  unnecessary  any 
detailed  development  of  it. 

As  nearly  as  we  could  estimate,  the  amount  of  drill  was  by  these 
methods  lessened  about  50  per  cent  in  all  subjects  except  formal 
grammar,  where  the  reduction  was  about  30  per  cent.  In  place  of 
having  all  the  pupils  solve  all  the  problems  given  to  illustrate  each 
topic  in  arithmetic,  approximately  a  third  of  them  were  omitted. 
Much  use  was  made  of  the  practice  of  having  one  pupil  work  an 
example  at  the  board  where  it  would  command  the  concentrated 
attention  of  the  class.  Many  original  problems  were  set  and  solved 
by  the  pupils ;  and  very  often,  in  order  to  provide  problems  difficult 
enough  to  call  forth  real  effort,  they  were  assigned  from  textbooks  of 
a  grade  higher  than  the  one  in  use.  In  particular  more  "thought 
problems"  were  given. 

In  geography  and  history,  the  reviews  by  questions  furnished  in 
the  book  were  frequently  replaced  by  reports  given  by  members  of  the 
class  upon  supplementary  readings  covering  the  same  ground.  The 
principle  of  application  was  also  often  made  use  of  in  review  in  differ- 
ent subjects,  and  was  so  used  whenever  it  seemed  advisable,  whether 
at  the  beginning  or  at  the  close  of  a  lesson  or  during  its  development. 
In  reviewing  history  in  the  6th  grade,  each  child  gave  a  report  worked 
out  by  himself,  on  two  separate  periods.  These  reports  were  well- 
developed;  the  manner  of  presenting  the  facts  were  in  most  cases  very 
good,  and  original  comments  and  comparisons  were  made. 

The  teacher  found  it  possible  to  correlate  lessons  to  a  much  greater 
degree  than  in  an  ordinary  room,  and  it  was  also  possible  to  do  more 
supplementary  work.  Outlines  of  lessons  were  frequently  worked  out 
by  the  pupils.  Sometimes  this  was  done  in  advance  by  pupils 
appointed  for  the  purpose,  and  their  outlines  then  used  before  the 
class  as  the  basis  of  the  assignment.  Much  less  testing  was  necessary 
in  developing  a  lesson  with  these  children  than  would  have  been 
required  with  ordinary  ones,  and  our  selected  pupils  were  easily  led  to 
develop  topics  by  wholes.  Since  it  was  possible  for  the  teacher  to  find 
many  more  points  of  contact  with  the  interests  of  these  children,  it 
was  much  easier  for  her  to  make  the  work  concrete  and  real.  She  did 
not  find  it  nearly  so  difficult  to  stimulate  their  interest  as  to  keeo  i^ 
within  due  bounds. 


METHODS  ADAPTED  TO  GIFTED  CHILDREN  109 

Discipline 

Closely  connected  with  methods  of  teaching  is  the  question  of  dis- 
cipline. I  have  answers  from  twelve  teachers  of  bright  children  to  the 
question:  ''Does  the  instruction  of  bright  children  present  any  pecu- 
liar problems  of  discipline?"  The  practically  unanimous  testimony  of 
these  teachers  is  to  the  effect  that,  far  from  presenting  any  problem, 
discipline  in  the  gifted  room  need  hardly  be  considered.  One  teacher 
says  that  bright  children  must  be  kept  very  busy,  and  are  frequently 
inattentive  because  they  already  know  what  is  being  explained. 
Another  says  that  the  only  difficulty  in  this  respect  is  a  tendency  to 
interrupt  one  another  in  discussion,  and  that  this  is  probably  due  to 
their  interest  in  the  subject.  Some  typical  answers  are  quoted:  "It 
is  the  most  orderly  school  I  have  ever  taught."  "We  have  no  trouble 
with  regularity  of  attendance,  punctuality,  or  discipline.  We  try  very 
hard  to  make  our  class  an  inspiration  to  the  school."  "I  never  had 
better  order  and  it  is  the  same  whether  I  am  in  or  out  of  the  room.  I 
feel  sure  better  discipline  in  all  schools  could  be  secured  if  pupils  were 
divided  according  to  their  ability."  Our  experience  with  our  own 
group  of  bright  children  was  quite  in  line  with  this  testimony,  for  at 
no  time  did  the  question  of  discipline  need  any  consideration. 
Although  one  of  the  6th-grade  boys  had  been  a  source  of  trouble 
during  the  previous  year,  after  he  was  transferred  to  the  special  room 
his  conduct  was  uniformly  good.  While  this  change  may  have  been 
due  to  other  causes,  rather  than  to  his  being  placed  in  the  special 
room,  the  fact  is  not  without  significance.  An  exactly  similar  case  was 
reported  to  me  from  the  class  in  the  Louisville  Normal  School,  and  I 
am  very  strongly  led  to  believe  that  the  conduct  in  school  of  a  boy 
who  is  both  bright  and  mischievous  would  be  greatly  improved  by 
putting  him  into  a  special  room  where  he  might  have  opportunity  to 
exercise  his  powers  and  to  form  habits  of  industry  and  attention. 

Because  it  is  argued  by  some  that  the  segregation  of  bright  chil- 
dren in  special  rooms  tends  to  develop  priggishness,  clannishness,  ego- 
tism, and  vanity,  and  because  the  possession  of  such  undesirable 
characteristics  by  bright  children  would  greatly  modify  the  teacher's 
method  of  dealing  with  them,  information  was  sought  as  to  whether 
bright  children  possess  these  traits  in  any  inordinate  degree,  and 
whether  there  is  any  noticeable  tendency  toward  their  development 
among  those  who  have  been  placed  in  special  rooms.    Opinions  upon 


no  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 

these  points  were  secured  from  ten  teachers  of  these  rooms.  Eight  of 
them  report  that  their  pupils  are  not  snobbish  and  priggish,  and  that 
segregation  has  not  developed  undemocratic  attitudes  or  sentiments. 
Two  say  that  in  their  classes  the  children  do  exhibit  these  egotistic 
traits;  one  that  she  notices  them  "in  a  marked  degree."  Both  these 
teachers  taught  the  same  group  of  children,  however,  one  as  a  special 
teacher  of  history,  the  other  of  geography,  in  a  school  under  depart- 
mental organization.  An  interesting  paragraph  from  one  of  the  letters 
in  answer  to  this  question  is  quoted: 

*'I  feel  sure  that  egotism  and  priggishness  are  not  developed, 
but  only  a  proper  amount  of  personal  puide  to  do  well.  They 
are  just  ordinary,  healthy  children,  and  are  just  like  normal 
children,  with  perhaps  the  exception  of  their  fondness  for  read- 
ing. I  notice  in  the  playground  they  enjoy  each  other's  com- 
pany, but  they  are  not  clannish  about  it."* 

Terman  secured  extensive  information  concerning  31  very  bright 
children  from  their  teachers.  Twenty-two  of  these  children  were 
reported  as  not  spoiled  or  vain,  five  as  spoiled,  and  two  as  somewhat 
spoiled.  No  statement  was  made  about  the  remaining  two.  As  a 
result  of  his  inquiry,  Terman  says: 

"According  to  testimony  of  their  teachers;  such  children  are 
fully  as  likely  to  be  healthy  as  average  children;  their  ability  is 
far  more  often  general  than  special;  they  are  studious  above  the 
average;  really  serious  moral  faults  are  not  common  among 
them;  they  are  nearly  always  socially  adaptable;  are  sought 
often  as  playmates  and  companions;  they  are  leaders  far  oftener 
than  other  children;  and  notwithstanding  their  many  really 
•     superior  qualities,  they  are  seldom  vain  or  spoiled."* 

So  far  as  the  pupils  in  our  room  at  Urbana  were  concerned,  in  gen- 
eral they  presented  the  appearance  of  ordinary  children  and  had  the 
same  social  characteristics,  so  that  the  atmosphere  of  the  room  was 
entirely  normal.  One  or  two  mild  cases  of  egotism  were  noted,  but 
these  could  be  explained  by  conditions  at  home  and  had  been  devel- 
oped before  the  children  entered  the  experimental  room.    So  far  as  our 

•  Letter  from  Miss  Helen  M.  Richardson,  George  Putnam  School,  Boston. 
"  Terman,  L.  M.    Mental  hygiene  of  exceptional  children,  Pedagogical  Seminary, 
22:529-537. 


METHODS  ADAPTED  TO  GIFTED  CHILDREN  111 

experience  goes,  it  agrees  with  the  burden  of  evidence  that  bright  chil- 
dren are  not  made  vain  or  conceited  by  placing  them  in  a  room 
organized  especially  to  meet  their  peculiar  needs.  It  is  perfectly  legi- 
timate for  able  children  to  feel  an  honest  pride  in  their  achievements, 
and  there  is  actually  less  chance  for  them  to  acquire  a  feeling  of  super- 
iority in  a  room  in  which  they  are  thrown  into  competition  with  their 
equals,  than  in  an  ordinary  room  where  they  stand  out  as  clearly 
superior  to  their  schoolmates. 

Summary 

In  this  chapter  we  have  examined  the  distinctive  features  of  that 
special  method  of  instruction  to  which  gifted  pupils  are  entitled,  on 
the  basis  of  the  results  of  the  mental  and  educational  tests  which  have 
previously  been  described. 

It  has  been  shown  that  for  a  special  room  for  bright  children  is 
demanded  an  exceptionally  able  teacher — one  who  possesses  broad 
scholarship,  adequate  professional  preparation,  and  a  strong  and 
commanding  personality. 

According  to  the  testimony  of  those  who  are  engaged  in  the  actual 
work  of  instruction  in  such  rooms,  the  chief  modifications  of  method 
which  are  being  made  use  of  in  practice  are  the  lessening  of  drill,  the 
lessening  in  amount  and  detail  of  explanation,  and  greater  provision 
for  initiative  on  the  part  of  the  pupils.  Other  important  features  are 
the  provision  of  opportunities  for  the  pupils  to  make  use  of  the  knowl- 
edge which  they  have  already  gained,  and  the  emphasizing  of  broad, 
underlying  principles  rather  than  more  or  less  unrelated  facts.  The 
difference  in  importance  of  the  various  topics  and  portions  of  subject 
matter  demands  a  corresponding  difference  in  amount  of  time 
devoted  to  them  and  in  emphasis  placed  upon  them. 

There  are  no  peculiar  problems  of  discipline  connected  with  the 
administration  of  a  special  room  for  gifted  children,  nor  do  the  pupils 
of  such  rooms  exhibit  any  inordinate  amount  of  clannishness,  prig- 
gishness,  vanity,  or  egotism. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
GENERAL  SUMMARY  AND  RECOMMENDATIONS 

The  experimental  part  of  this  study  has  demonstrated  that  chil- 
dren representing  the  top  tenth  of  the  school  population  of  the  middle 
grades,  on  a  proper  basis  of  selection,  are  able  to  accomplish  two  years 
of  the  ordinary  school  work  of  those  grades  in  one  year,  under  a 
mediocre  teacher  and  with  average  conditions  of  supervision  and 
equipment,  without  any  undue  strain  or  any  depreciation  in  the 
quality  of  their  work  when  measured  by  the  standard  educational 
scales  and  tests  as  well  as  by  the  methods  ordinarily  used  in  the 
school.  It  has  also  been  shown  that  gifted  children  excel  in  regularity 
of  attendance,  and  that  their  segregation  in  a  special  room  practically 
eliminates  the  problem  of  discipline  and  does  not  tend  to  develop  in 
them  egotism,  vanity,  clannishness,  or  priggishness.  The  results  of 
the  practice  test  described  in  the  text  confirm  the  opinion  of  previous 
investigators  that  practice,  so  far  from  decreasing  individual  differ- 
ences, tends,  on  the  contrary,  to  increase  them.  Tests  in  the  funda- 
mental subjects  of  the  school  course  have  quite  uniformly  shown  that 
the  children  in  the  experimental  room  in  the  Leal  School,  taken  as  a 
group,  have  an  ability  equal  to  that  of  ordinary  children  a  year  older 
than  they,  and  the  same  advancement  was  shown  in  the  results  of  the 
mental  tests.  All  the  evidence  at  hand  points  to  the  fact  that  the 
mental  differences  between  superior  and  average  children  are  of  such 
a  nature  that  in  their  instruction  a  special  adaptation  of  method  is 
necessary,  the  leading  features  of  which  have  just  been  indicated. 

In  summarizing  the  more  specific  details  of  our  study,  it  is  desir- 
able to  offer  certain  definite  suggestions  concerning  the  organization 
and  conduct  of  special  rooms  for  gifted  children.  These  recommenda- 
tions are  offered  upon  the  basis  of  the  author's  observation  of  the 
work  of  the  experimental  room  throughout  the  year,  upon  the  results 
of  the  educational  and  psychological  tests  which  were  applied  by  the 

112 


GENERAL  SUMMARY  AND  RECOMMENDA TIONS  1 13 

Other  investigators,  and  upon  present  practice  in  rooms  of  the  same 
kind  as  ascertained  by  correspondence  with  teachers  and  school 
officials  in  charge  of  them. 

Recommendations 

1.  The  enrollment  of  a  special  room  for  gifted  pupils  should  represent 
a  selection  of  approximately  the  top  ten  per  cent  of  the  ordinary  school 
population  in  the  grades  which  are  to  he  represented. 

To  put  this  statement  into  terms  of  the  intelligence  quotient; 
enrollment  in  the  special  room  should  be  limited  to  children  who 
possess  an  intelligence  quotient  of  at  least  115.  In  practice  this  would 
mean  the  segregation  of  approximately  the  top  tenth. 

2.  Health  should  he  an  important  factor  in  the  selection  of  the  pupils. 
While,  as  has  been  shown,  the  pupils  of  our  own  ro(^  were  under 

no  undue  strain  and  suflFered  no  impairment  of  health^t  may  readily 
be  seen  that  the  purposes  for  which  a  special  room  is  organized,  and 
the  methods  by  which  those  purposes  are  attained,  are  such  as  to 
render  it  inadvisable  for  highly  nervous  or  sickly  children  to  be 
included  in  its  membership.  This  consideration  was,  of  course,  taken 
into  account  by  those  who  selected  our  pupils,  so  that  the  children  in 
the  experimental  room  represented  at  least  average  conditions  of 
health  and  physique. 

3.  The  method  of  selecting  gifted  pupils  should  he  hy  mental  tests ^ 
not  hy  teachers^  estimates  of  the  pupils'  ahility  or  estimates  hy  school 
administrators  from  school  marks. 

An  examination  of  the  tables  of  results  of  the  mental  tests  which 
have  been  described  in  Chapter  VI  will  show  that  a  few  individuals 
consistently  made  low  scores.  These  same  individuals  made  low 
scores  in  the  educational  tests,  and,  likewise,  if  the  selection  had  been 
made  on  the  basis  of  the  possession  of  an  intelligence  quotient  of  at 
least  115,  instead  of  on  the  opinion  of  the  school  authorities,  they  are 
just  the  ones  that  would  have  not  been  admitted  to  the  special  class. 
It  is  the  presence  of  these  pupils  that  in  large  part  accounts  for  the 
wide  range  of  scores  that  our  selected  group  shows  in  the  various 
tables.  It  often  happens  that  a  certain  superficial  glibness  passes  foij 
intelligence  to  such  an  extent  that  a  teacher  is  readily  deceived,  or  that^ 
a  good  memory  conceals  the  lack  of  ability  to  reason.  These,  or  othef7' 
factors  may  creep  in  to  warp  a  teacher's  judgment  of  the  abilities  of 


114  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 

any  particular  pupil,  with  the  result  that  when  the  selection  is  made 
for  a  special  class  on  the  basis  of  a  teacher's  opinion,  whether 
expressed  in  class  marks  or  otherwise,  it  may  readily  happen,  as  it  did 
in  this  instance,  that  some  pupils  are  selected  who,  although  they 
have  succeeded  in  obtaining  high  marks  in  their  school  work  when 
proceeding  at  the  usual  rate,  are  able  only  with  difficulty  to  keep  up 
with  the  natural  pace  of  those  who  are  really  mentally  fit  for  segrega- 
tion as  superior  pupils.  Mental  tests,  on  the  other  hand  do  furnish 
an  impersonal  and  scientific  method  of  selection,  which  takes  into 
account  only  intellectual  ability.^ 

4.  The  teacher  of  a  special  room  for  gifted  children  must  possess  a 
large  fund  of  general  information. 

Broad  general  information  is  necessary  in  order  to  meet  with  the 
wide  range  of  questions  which  are  the  result  of  the  wealth  of  associa- 
tions which  bright  children  possess  and  the  extended  field  of  their 
interests,  as  well  as  to  make  use  of  points  of  contact  which  would  not 
be  available  in  the  instruction  of  ordinary  children  and  which  obvious- 
ly ought  to  be  capitalized. 

5.  The  teacher  must  have  had  adequate  foundation  in  the  theory  and 
practice  of  education. 

This  is  essential  in  order  that  economy  in  teaching  and  in  learning 
be  brought  about  through  definite  plans  of  work,  and  through  the 
ability  on  the  part  of  the  teacher  to  understand  and  carry  out  those 
special  adaptations  of  method  which  are  suited  to  the  education  of 
gifted  children. 

6.  The  teacher  must  be  characterized  by  energy,  enthusiasm,  and  an 
inspiring  personality. 

In  order  to  develop  in  these  children  the  necessary  habits  of  self- 
reliance,  industry,  and  initiative,  the  teacher,  on  her  part,  must 
exhibit  energy  and  enthusiasm,  and  must  have  a  peisonality  such  as 
to  inspire  her  pupils  to  put  forth  their  best  efforts  and  to  challenge 
them  to  summon  all  their  powers. 

7.  The  teacher  in  charge  of  a  special  room  should  be  carried  along 
with  it  in  its  advancement,  and  should  remain  with  it  as  long  as  it  retains 
its  organization. 

*  Professor  Whipple  has  recently  placed  on  the  market  a  special  pamphlet  of 
group  tests  for  the  selection  of  gifted  children,  particularly  in  the  4th,  5  th  and  6th 
grades. 


GENERAL  SUMMARY  AND  RECOMMENDATIONS  115 

This  arrangement  makes  for  economy  of  time,  in  that  it  becomes 
unnecessary  for  the  pupils,  at  the  beginning  of  each  year,  to  adjust 
themselves  to  the  characteristics,  methods,  and  requirements  of  a 
new  teacher;  nor  is  any  time  lost  by  the  teacher  in  making  the 
acquaintance  of  a  new  set  of  pupils.  It  also  permits  greater  freedom 
in  the  organization  of  subject  matter  from  year  to  year  in  the  course. 

8.  The  special  room  should  he  equipped  with  movable  desks,  and 
should  he  well  supplied  with  maps,  charts,  glohes,  pictures,  and  other 
aids  to  study. 

The  use  of  movable  desks  gives  much  more  freedom  of  movement 
to  the  pupils,  and  makes  possible  much  greater  variety  in  conducting 
the  exercises  of  the  school.  If  the  pupils  have  access  to  books  for 
supplementary  reading,  maps,  globes,  and  other  illustrative  material, 
their  study  will  be  more  independent,  and  they  will  have  opportunity 
to  learn  how  to  work  for  themselves. 

9.  In  the  special  room  for  gifted  children,  drill  should  be  decreased  by 
about  50  per  cent. 

Correspondence  with  teachers  shows  this  to  be  a  prevalent  prac- 
tice in  rooms  of  this  kind,  and  corroborative  evidence  has  been  fur- 
nished by  the  work  of  the  experimental  room.  Results  of  learning 
tests  indicate  that  practice  is  more  efficient  in  the  case  of  those  who 
already  possess  high  initial  ability. 

10.  Likewise,  explanation  should  be  reduced  about  50  per  cent  in 
amount,  and  needs  to  he  given  in  much  less  detail  than  to  ordinary  pupils. 

This  is  also  the  common  practice  in  special  rooms  for  gifted  pupils. 
It  is  justified  by  the  quickness  with  which  the  children  learn  and  by 
their  greater  ability  in  perceiving  relationships. 

11.  Emphasis  should  be  placed  upon  the  development  of  the  pupils^ 
initiative. 

A  prominent  feature  in  the  education  of  bright  children  is  the 
increase  of  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  initiative  on  their  part,  with 
a  consequent  insistence  upon  self-reliance  and  free  expression. 

12.  Much  use  should  he  made  of  the  'principle  of  application.* 

In  carrying  out  this  principle,  pupils  must  be  encouraged  in  all 
possible  ways  to  make  immediate  and  practical  application  of  what 
they  have  learned,  in  the  acquisition  of  new  knowledge  and  in  the 


116  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  11 

Other  activities  of  the  schoolroom.  In  particular,  the  teacher  may 
often  very  advantageously  make  use  of  this  principle  in  provision  for 
review. 

13.  Instruction  should  be  as  much  as  possible  by  broad,  underlying 
principles,  rather  than  by  detached  facts. 

This  is  an  important  principle  in  all  teaching,  but  it  can  be  realized 
to  a  much  greater  extent  with  bright  children  than  with  ordinary 
ones,  and  consequently  needs  to  receive  greater  emphasis  in  their 
instruction. 

14:.  An  important  feature  of  the  teacher^ s  method  is  the  development 
of  a  proper  perspective  of  the  material  of  instruction. 

This  implies  the  ability  to  estimate  the  relative  importance  of  the 
different  topics  and  pieces  of  subject  matter  in  order  to  make  a  proper 
distribution  of  time  and  energy  among  them  and  to  insure  that  the 
more  important  topics  receive  the  greater  attention. 

15.  The  teacher  of  the  special  room  for  bright  children  need  pay  but 
little  attention  to  discipline,  beyond  seeing  to  it  that  the  pupils  have  work 
enough  to  keep  them  busy. 

The  testimony  of  those  who  are  engaged  in  giving  instruction  to 
special  groups  of  bright  children  is  practically  unanimous  to  the  effect 
that  no  disciplinary  troubles  are  encountered.  While  bright  children 
sometimes  cause  trouble  in  ordinary  rooms,  because  of  the  lack  of 
employment,  when  they  are  placed  in  a  room  where  they  have  plenty 
of  work  to  occupy  their  attention,  and  where  they  must  exert  them- 
selves to  keep  up  with  their  fellows,  their  idleness  gives  place  to 
industry,  and  they  cease  to  give  any  trouble  on  the  score  of  conduct. 
The  only  recommendation  that  needs  to  be  made  upon  this  point, 
then,  is  that  the  teacher  see  to  it  that  the  pupils  have  work  enough  to 
occupy  their  time. 

16.  If  any  of  the  pupils  in  the  special  room  seem  to  be  developing 
egotistic  tendencies,  the  teacher  should  apply  the  ^social  check.' 

Contrary  to  the  impression  entertained  by  some,  segregation  of 
superior  children  does  not  inevitably  develop  in  them  undemocratic 
ideas  and  attitudes.  Quite  the  opposite,  for  in  fact  there  is  more 
opportunity  for  the  development  of  the  feeling  of  superiority  on  the 
part  of  the  bright  child  in  the  regular  room  than  in  the  special  room. 
Under  ordinary  conditions,  the  bright  child  stands  out  conspicuously 
above  his  fellows,  his  superiority  is  acknowledged  by  them,  often  to 


GENERA L  SUMMA RY  AND  RECOMMENDA TIONS  1 1 7 

the  point  of  resentment,  and  he  is  keenly  aware  of  it.  When  a  ques- 
tion has  gone  round  the  rest  of  the  class  without  receiving  an  answer, 
the  teacher  turns  to  him  with  an  air  of  finality  and  relief.  Such  oppor- 
tunity for  display  does  not  come  to  the  child  in  the  special  room,  for 
here  he  is  among  real  competitors,  and  in  place  of  being  always  in  the 
lead  he  must  often  exert  himself  to  keep  up  with  the  rest.  Of  course, 
it  would  not  be  out  of  place  for  a  teacher  of  a  special  room,  as  well  as 
any  other  teacher,  to  keep  close  watch  for  the  beginnings  of  vanity 
and  egotism  in  order  that  she  may  promptly  check  them.  This  can 
often  be  done  by  comparing  the  work  of  the  child  who  needs  to  be 
thus  corrected  with  that  of  some  other  pupil  of  superior,  or  at  least 
equal,  ability  in  that  particular  line.  It  is  actually  easier  for  a  teacher 
to  hold  such  tendencies  in  check  in  a  room  where  the  pupils  are  of 
about  equal  ability  than  in  a  room  where  the  bright  children  are 
conspicuous  by  their  superiority  over  their  classmates. 

17.  Corresponding  to  the  special  adaptations  of  method,  there  should 
be  a  readjustment  of  emphasis  in  subject  matter. 

Modification  of  methods  of  instruction  must  perforce  bring  about 
modification  in  subject  matter.  Corresponding  to  the  lessened 
amount  of  drill,  there  will  be  a  lessening  in  the  number  of  problems 
and  exercises  in  the  formal  subjects.  Less  attention  should  be  given 
to  details  of  secondary  importance,  and  more  attention  to  necessary 
principles.  Much  of  the  purely  explanatory  matter  in  the  textbooks 
may  be  passed  over  lightly  or  even  omitted.  It  was  found,  in  our 
experimental  room,  that  the  children  often  knew  much  of  the  matter 
ahead  of  them  in  the  course  of  study,  and  this  made  it  possible  for  that 
material  to  be  passed  over  rapidly.  Especially  did  this  happen  when  a 
new  volume  in  a  series  of  textbooks  in  the  same  subject  was  taken  up. 
For  instance,  the  advanced  textbook  in  geography,  which  the  special 
6th  grade  began  to  study  at  about  the  middle  of  the  year,  began  with  a 
review  of  the  definitions  and  principles  which  the  pupils  had  learned 
in  their  study  of  the  intermediate  book.  Since  it  was  found  that  the 
children  were  already  perfectly  familiar  with  practically  all  this 
material,  this  portion  of  the  book  was  used  only  for  a  rapid  review, 
instead  of  being  made  the  subject  of  definite  and  extended  assign- 
ments, as  would  have  been  the  case  if  the  matter  had  been  entirely 
new.  Exactly  the  same  thing  took  place  in  5th-grade  arithmetic  and 
6th-grade  language. 


118  NINETEENTH  YEARBOOK— PART  II 

18.  The  teacher  of  a  special  room  for  gifted  children  should  he 
allowed  wide  latitude  in  modifying  the  course  of  study  to  fit  the  purpose  of 
the  room  and  the  needs  of  the  pupils. 

The  author's  work  with  the  experimental  room  during  the  year 
thoroughly  convinced  him  that  a  great  deal  of  freedom  should  be 
allowed  the  teacher  of  a  gifted  room  in  following  the  conventional 
course  of  study.  The  investigators  all  felt  that  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  experiment,  a  considerable  amount  of  time  was  lost  in  doing 
work  which  could  be  justified  only  on  the  ground  of  preparation  for 
the  somewhat  rigid  requirements  of  a  conservative  school  system. 
The  fact  that  we  were  not  allowed  to  alter  the  sequence  of  any  of  the 
branches  of  subject  matter  seriously  interfered  with  our  efforts  to 
condense  the  regular  course  of  study  for  the  two  years  into  an  econo- 
mical and  eflficient  one-year  course.  If  a  teacher  of  the  type  which 
has  been  recommended  is  once  secured,  she  should  be  left  in  compara- 
tive freedom  to  select  what  she  considers  the  essential  parts  of  the 
course  of  study,  and  to  present  them  in  the  order  which  is  best 
adapted  to  the  needs  of  her  class.  The  time  saved  by  these  methods 
would  afford  opportunity  to  add  a  considerable  quantity  of  outside 
material  of  a  cultural  nature,  much  of  which  might  well  be  supplied  by 
the  pupils  themselves.  This  added  material, might  include,  among 
many  others,  such  things  as  extended  supplementary  reading  of 
standard  literature  mainly  for  appreciation,  dramatization,  pageantry 
free  discussion  of  the  important  topics  in  the  news  of  the  day,  the 
collection  of  newspaper  clippings  correlating  with  the  work  in  civics 
and  hygiene,  the  illustration  of  history  and  geography  with  such  relics, 
costumes,  utensils,  etc.,  as  are  available  or  can  be  procured,  especially 
those  which  the  pupils  are  able  to  bring,  enrichment  of  the  work  in 
history  by  some  consideration  of  industrial  history,  study  of  local 
city  and  state  industries  in  connection  with  the  work  in  geography, 
and  so  on  through  a  long  list.  In  some  cases  it  might  be  possible  to 
take  up  the  study  of  a  foreign  language,  as  was  done  in  the  ''oppor- 
tunity class"  in  the  Louisville  Normal  School,  where  4th-grade  chil- 
dren were  given  daily  lessons  in  German,  wholly  by  the  conversational 
method. 

Special  rooms  for  gifted  children  are  of  two  general  types.  One 
type,  which  is  the  more  common,  contemplates  a  saving  of  time  by 
providing  for  the  more  rapid  progress  of  the  pupils.    The  other  makes 


GENERAL  SUMMARY  AND  RECOMMENDATIONS  119 

no  provision  for  the  saving  of  time,  but  makes  use  of  a  course  of  study 
different  from  the  ordinary  one  in  that  it  either  (a)  contains  more  of 
the  same  kind  of  material,  or  (b)  includes  different  material,  which  is 
usually  of  a  more  cultural  nature.  Of  the  second  type,  the  latter 
arrangement  is  by  far  the  better.  It  is  subject  to  one  danger,  however, 
in  that  in  the  attempt  to  add  cultural  material,  the  course  may  be  so 
diluted  as  to  defeat  one  of  the  most  important  purposes  of  such  rooms, 
namely,  the  provision  of  opportunity  for  gifted  children  to  learn  what 
hard  mental  work  is.  This  danger,  however,  is  not  inherent  in  the 
scheme  and  may  very  easily  be  avoided. 

Although  most  of  the  special  rooms  for  gifted  children  now  in 
operation  have  a  course  of  study  so  arranged  as  to  make  it  possible  for 
the  pupils  to  do  three  years'  work  in  two,  this  study  has  shown  that 
bright  children  of  the  5  th  and  6th  grades  can  do  two  years'  work  in 
one,  and  the  same  gain  in  time  has  been  accomplished  in  one  or  two 
other  rooms  of  the  kind.  By  lessening  the  amount  of  drill,  decreasing 
the  amount  of  explanation,  and,  on  the  side  of  subject  matter,  omit- 
ting or  passing  rapidly  over  what  is  already  known  or  of  relative 
unimportance,  enough  time  can  be  saved  so  that  all  of  the  essential 
topics  of  the  two  years'  work  can  be  mastered  in  one.  There  will  be 
time  enough  left,  in  addition,  to  make  possible  the  introduction  of  a 
considerable  amount  of  cultural  material  of  the  kind  mentioned 
above,  by  which  the  course  will  be  enriched  and  made  to  connect  more 
completely  with  the  lives  of  the  individual  pupils. 


CHAPTER  IX 

BIBLIOGRAPHY  ON  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  AND 
PEDAGOGY  OF  GIFTED  CHILDREN 

This  bibliography,  which  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  complete, 
attempts  to  give  a  fairly  comprehensive  list  of  references  dealing,  in 
various  ways,  with  questions  concerning  the  mentality  of  gifted  chil- 
dren, as  well  as  their  training. 

Adler,  Martha.    Mental  tests  used  as  a  basis  for  the  classification  of  school  children. 

/.  Educ.  Psych.,  5:1914,  22-28. 
Alderman,  L.  R.    Effort  to  make  the  school  fit  the  needs  of  the  exceptional  child. 

Proc.  N.  E.  A.,  1914,  830-835. 
Aley,  J.  A.    Care  of  exceptional  children  in  the  grades.    Proc.  N.E.A.,  1910,  881-886. 
Anon.     A  class  of  exceptional  children.     School,  28:  June  7,  1917,  409. 
Answer  to  Correspondent.     How  can  we  give  to  the  brighter  child  the  benefit  of  his 

better  endowment.     American  School,  2:  May,  1916,  156. 
Becht,  A.  A.    Bright  pupils  and  dull  pupils.    J.  Educ.,  79:  1914,  395H3. 
Berkhan,  O.    Otto  Pohler,  das  f riihlesende  Braunschweiger  Kind.    Zeits.  f.  Kinderfor- 

schung,  15:1910,  166-171. 
Berkhan,  O.    Das  Wunderkind,  Christian  H.  Heineken.    Zeits.  f.  Kinderforschung, 
H|^15:1910,  225-229. 

Bcrle,  A.  A.    Teaching  in  the  Home.    New  York,  1915. 
Berry  C.  S.    Special  classes  in  Michigan  for  mentally  exceptional  children,  in  Kept. 

Supt.  Public  Instruction,  Michigan,  1914-15,  especially  57-75. 
Bliss,  D.  C.    The  application  of  standard  measurements  to  school  administration. 

Fifteenth  Yearbook  of  the  National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Education,  Part  I,  1916, 

69-78. 
Boggs,  Anita  U.    A  plea  for  the  forward  child.    The  Child,  2 :  Oct.  191 1,  45-47. 
Boston,  Mass.,  School  Committee,  Annual  Reports,  1913,  1914. 
Breitweiser,  J.  V.    The  case  for  the  gifted  child.    Colorado  School  Journal,  28:  April, 

1913,  20-22. 
Bruce,  H.  A.    Lightning  calculators.    McClure's  Mag.,  39:  1912,586-596. 
Bruce,  H.  A.    New  ideas  in  child  training.    Amer.  Mag.,  72 :  July,  1911,  286-294. 
Bruce,  H.  A.    Story  of  Karl  Witte.    Outlook,  100:  1912,  211-218. 
Burk,  Caroline  F.    Promotion  of  bright  and  slow  children.    Educ.  Rev.,  19:  1900, 

296-302. 
Bumell,  Elizabeth  F.    Instruction  in  mathematics  for  gifted  pupils.    Ped.  Sem.,  24: 

1917,    569-583. 

120 


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Cambridge,  Mass.,  School  Committee,  Annual  Reports,  1908, 1910. 

Cautley,  E.    The  precocious  child.    The  Child,  9:  Aug  ,  1919,  481-^86. 

Christenson,  D.  H.    Changes  in  the  course  of  study  and  school  organization  to  meet  the 

varying  capacities  of  children.    Froc.  N.  E.  A.,  1912,  355-368. 
Clerk  F,  E.    The  Arlington  plan  of  grouping  pupils  according  to  ability  in  the  Arlington 

High  School.    Sch.  Rev.,  25:  1917,26-47. 
Cleveland,  Elizabeth.    Report  of  Director  of  the  Special  Advanced  Class,  in  Annual 

Report,  Board  of  Education,  Detroit,  Mich.,  1916,  p.  94. 
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466.) 
Cooper,  H.  E.    Another  study  of  retardation.    Educ.  Admin,  and  Superv.,  5:  April, 

1919,  177-183. 
Coy,  Genevieve.   The  mentality  of  a  gifted  child.   /.  Applied  Fsych.,  2 :  1918,  299-307. 

Davidson,  H.  A.    The  gift  of  genius.    /.  of  Fed.,  16:1904,  281-297. 

Deffenbaugh,  W.  S.    Current  progress  in  schools  of  cities  of  25,000  population  or  less. 

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143-151. 

Eike,  P.  V.    The  most  learned  boy  in  the  world.    Amer.  Mag.,  81 :  March,  1916,  52. 

Eliot,  C.  W.  Educational  changes  needed  for  the  war  and  subsequent  peace.  Educa- 
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VITA 

Theodore  Spafford  Henry  was  born  May  9,  1878,  at  West  Jersey 
Stark  County,  Illinois.  He  obtained  his  elementary  education  in  the 
rural  school,  and  prepared  for  college  in  the  Academy  of  Hedding 
College,  Abingdon,  Illinois.  He  received  the  degree  of  A.B.  from 
Hedding  College  in  1903.  He  was  a  graduate  student  in  education 
at  the  University  of  Illinois  during  the  summer  sessions  of  1913,  1914, 
1915,  and  1916,  and  the  regular  school  years  of  1915-1916  and  1916- 
1917;  and  received  the  degree  of  A.M.  in  education  in  1916.  Through- 
out the  year  1916-1917  he  was  engaged  in  a  study  of  gifted  children 
conducted  by  Professor  Guy  M.  Whipple,  under  a  subsidy  from  the 
General  Education  Board. 

His  first  year  of  teaching  (1903-1904)  was  in  a  country  school  in 
Warren  County,  Illinois.  From  1904  to  1907,  he  was  in  charge  of 
village  graded  schools  at  Altona,  Illinois  (two  years),  and  Melvin, 
Illinois  (one  year).  From  1907  to  1912  he  was  superintendent  of 
schools  at  Elm  wood,  Illinois,  and  from  1912  to  1916  at  Havana, 
Illinois.  He  was  instructor  in  psychology  at  the  Michigan  State 
Normal  College,  Ypsilanti,  Michigan,  during  the  summer  session  of 
1917.  Since  September  1,  1917,  he  has  been  professor  of  psychology 
in  the  Western  State  Normal  School,  Kalamazoo,  Michigan. 

He  is  a  member  of  Kappa  Delta  Pi,  Phi  Delta  Kappa,  and  Sigma 
Xi.     He  has  published: 

A  comparison  of  two  recent  contributions  to  the  theory  of  educa- 
tion.    School  and  Home  Education^  September,  1916. 

Standards  of  "good  form"  in  classroom  teaching.  School  and 
Home  Education^  November,  1916. 

The  problem  method  in  teaching.  School  and  Home  Education, 
February,  1917. 

The  education  and  control  of  the  emotions.  Journal  of  Educa- 
tional Psychology  J  September,  1917. 


126 


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